Core.Com @ Higher: Reading: Is it wrong to save a child from danger?
Core Skill Communication: Higher
Outcome 1 Reading - Formative
The following article appeared in the Scotsman on Friday 15 February 2002. Read
through the text carefully and then try answering the generic questions.
Look at the scanned original at the end, as well as the transcribed text: it includes a
photograph of a baby on his tummy on the floor, with an adult hand just about to
smack (the hand is not immediately obvious and may have been digitally added to
the original picture.)
Is it wrong to save
a child from
danger?
Seonag MacKinnon on the
smacking debate
For Julie Jackson, a mother-of-two,
the gap between real life and the
ideal of never smacking her
children hit home during a
mundane shopping trip.
As she emerged from a garden
centre her daughter Jenny, then
two, ran into the road in front of a
car.
Mrs Jackson said, “I screamed,
whisked her out of the way and
smacked her bottom. It was an
instinctive reaction out of sheer
terror. Jenny wasn’t aware of the
danger she was in.”
As there were several witnesses
to the event, Mrs Jackson, 36,
could have been subject to a
criminal investigation.
Her daughter is under the age of
three and if the proposed law had
been in force, she could have
ended up in court.
Mrs Jackson, of Inverleith
Gardens, Edinburgh, said: “To my
mind, it would have been unfair if I
had faced prosecution. Tears
followed the smacking but Jenny
was more stunned by me
screaming and shouting.
“She was not hurt by the smack
and undoubtedly she would have
been more hurt by the car.,”
Mrs Jackson, a corporate lawyer,
stressed that she does not support
the principle of physical
punishment: “It is almost always
pointless. I don’t think that young
children learn from it. Having said,
that, I don’t believe the law should
interfere except when punishment
is excessive or unwarranted.
“In an ideal world, you would not
want a child ever to be smacked
but I can see situations – such as a
child sticking fingers in a socket –
when you need to react instantly.”
Mrs Jackson, who also has a 15month-old son, Rory, as well as her
daughter Jenny, now five, said it is
difficult for parents to live up to
ideals and prevent every potential
danger or source of conflict. In
theory, I could have had my
daughter in reins on that day, but I
didn’t.”
The Scottish executive
embarked on a period of
consultation following publication in
February 2000 of its paper,
Physical Punishment of Children in
Scotland.
This was the first step towards a
proposed law to ban parents from
using any kind of implement to hit
their children and to outlaw the
smacking of toddlers.
Glenrothes College: Core Skill Communication 2004—2005
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Core.Com @ Higher: Reading: Is it wrong to save a child from danger?
Although the official consultation
period has now closed, the plan is
some distance from becoming law
as part of the justice bill issued in
December 2001.
But today’s survey by the
Scottish Parent Teacher Council,
which will be presented to the
executive, is likely to influence
MSPs when they vote on the
proposals, because the number of
people responding to the
questionnaire eclipses the number
responding directly to the
executive.
The survey indicated that 56 per
cent of parents reject the proposal
that they be held criminally
responsible for children under
three, and an overwhelming
majority oppose a call from
children’s charities for the
government to go further and make
it illegal to smack children of any
age.
Many children’s charities have
made official representations to the
executive.
The proposed change in the law
results from the European
Convention on Human Rights,
which requires a clearer legal
definition of the word “excessive” in
the context of physical punishment
of children.
The white paper can be viewed
on the Scottish Executive website
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/
justice/mssp-01.asp 
Caption under photo: The survey claims
56 per cent of parents reject the proposal
that they be held criminally responsible for
children under three.
Glenrothes College: Core Skill Communication 2004—2005
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Core.Com @ Higher: Reading: Is it wrong to save a child from danger?
Scanned article
Glenrothes College: Core Skill Communication 2004—2005
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