## Facts

- A mother of three minor children believed corporal punishment could be an appropriate last-resort form of discipline.
- The mother would spank her daughter, C.F., with a belt approximately four times per year, generally as a final step after other discipline failed.
- After an earlier incident involving one of C.F.’s siblings, the Department of Social Services visited the family.
- The department required the mother and stepfather to attend parenting classes as a condition for keeping the children in the home.
- The parenting classes instructed the parents to use a graduated “sliding scale” of discipline and to begin with the least forceful options before escalating.
- Months later, C.F. repeatedly misbehaved and continued acting out despite being grounded for weeks.
- On a day when C.F. had been “particularly bad,” the mother decided grounding was not working and resorted to corporal punishment.
- The mother spanked C.F. six times with a belt over C.F.’s clothing.
- The spanking left no marks and no bruises.
- Despite the lack of visible injury, C.F. was removed from the home.
- The State filed an abuse and neglect petition on behalf of C.F.
- After a hearing, the trial court found C.F. to be an abused and neglected child based on the mother’s use of the belt.
- The mother appealed the abuse/neglect adjudication.

## Issues

1. Whether the State proved by clear and convincing evidence that the mother’s discipline—spanking C.F. six times with a belt over clothing, leaving no marks—was unreasonable or excessive so as to constitute statutory abuse or neglect rather than permissible parental discipline.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of South Dakota reversed the trial court’s abuse and neglect adjudication.
- The court held the State did not present clear and convincing evidence that the mother’s conduct, as shown in the record, amounted to abuse or neglect under the governing standard for corporal punishment.

## Legal Principles

- Corporal punishment by a parent is not automatically abuse or neglect; it becomes actionable only when it is unreasonable in manner or excessive in degree under the circumstances.
- The abuse/neglect determination focuses on the nature of the force used and the resulting injury or risk of injury shown by the evidence in the particular incident at issue.
- Evidence that a parent used an implement (such as a belt) may be considered, but it does not by itself establish statutory abuse or neglect.
- An abuse/neglect adjudication must be supported by clear and convincing evidence; where the proof does not show marks, bruising, or other reliable evidence of injury from the discipline, the burden may not be met on this record.

## Conclusion

The Supreme Court of South Dakota reversed the abuse and neglect finding because, although the mother used a belt to spank C.F. six times after lesser discipline failed, the record showed the spanking was over clothing and left no marks or bruises, and the State therefore failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the discipline was unreasonable or excessive under the child-protection statutes.


People ex rel. C.F., 708 N.W.2d 313 (2005)