Baby-slapping incident on plane prompts corporal-punishment debate
By LEANNE ITALIE and SUE MAJOR HOLMES
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — America's latest folk-hero flight attendant may be the one on a Southwest Airlines jet who took a 13-month-old baby from her mother after the woman slapped the crying child for kicking her. The attendant's actions, however, set off an intense debate: When and how should bystanders intervene?
Parents on both sides of the corporal-punishment debate agreed that hitting a baby that young was wrong. But they also empathized with the mother, saying they've been exactly where she found herself Monday on the Dallas-to-Seattle flight: stressed, and trapped on an airplane.
The federal laws that give crew members broad power to ensure safety can be invoked in situations like the one that unfolded on the flight, said Jerry Sterns, a San Francisco attorney specializing in aviation cases.
Acts of aggression against children in public places are often witnessed but frequently ignored, said Christin Jamieson, a spokeswoman for Washington state's blue-ribbon, anti-abuse commission called the Council of Children and Families.
"Simply put, most people don't know what to do," she said. "This is one of the most helpless feelings — both for the child and the witness — that you can imagine."
Flight attendant Beverly McCurley told officers that she saw the mother hit the child on the face with her open hand while the father yelled at the mother to stop screaming at the girl. She noted the girl had a black eye. The parents said the bruise was from a dog bite.
McCurley described the mother as agitated. She said the woman also slapped the baby on the legs and told the child to shut up. The mother later told police she "popped" the tired tot when the child kicked her, because "when she's screaming and she can't hear me say no, that's the only way I can get her to stop."
The flight attendant said she took the baby and walked to the rear of the plane. She said the father came back, took the child and stood there with her until she fell asleep.
At the request of the airline, authorities met the parents when the flight landed in Albuquerque, a scheduled stop. Paramedics checked out the child, and the family boarded another flight to continue their trip.
