Michigan Mother to Go on Trial
For Slapping Runaway Daughter
BRIGHTON, Mich. (AP)
A mother who admits slapping
her runaway daughter in the
face says she shouldn't have
been charged with a crime for
simply administering parental
discipline.
Debbie Skousen could get up
to a year in jail if convicted of
assault and domestic violence
against her 18-year-old daughter.
"It has been a painful thing,"
Skousen said in Tuesday's Ann
Arbor News. "It has so severed
relationships between siblings
that I don't know if they're ever
going to talk again. It really
drove a wedge in my family."
In April, Skousen's daughter
Rebecca, then a high school
senior, took off for two days and
refused to say where she had
been. The mother said her
daughter cursed at her, so she
slapped her twice in the face.
"We're talking about
parental discipline, an open
handed slapping, twice,"
Skousen said.
Rebecca complained to her
school counselor, who contacted
police as required by state law
when abuse is suspected.
Skousen was eventually
charged and is scheduled to go
on trial Nov. 6. An older daugh-
ter, one of five Skousen chil-
dren, is expected to testify
against her mother.
Livingston County
Prosecutor David Morse said
that when slapping results in
physical injury, it steps out of
the realm of parental discipline.
A police officer said he saw a bruise.
But Skousen said her daughter was not injured.
She said a doctor who saw her that same
day at Urgent Care in Brighton,
where she had been sent by
the school, said in his report
that she had no bruise or other
indication of any physical
injury.
