Victorian father forced to beg for job after smacking his child at home
A Victorian father, who worked as a tennis coach, was stripped of his Working with Children Check and left begging for his job after smacking his child at home.
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A dad has been charged, hauled before the courts, and made to beg for his job after he was caught smacking one of his four children.
The man, who can be known only as SFW, was charged with recklessly causing injury and ultimately placed on a Community Correction Order, without conviction, for smacking the child on the back hard enough to leave a red mark and welted handprint.
He was then stripped of his Working with Children Check putting his career as a tennis coach in jeopardy.
SFW took his case to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal where the Secretary to the Department of Justice and Community Safety argued the working with children ban should stay in place.
It was argued the nature and gravity of the offending was too serious to allow SFW to work with children.
The tribunal heard SFW lashed out after he asked his child to go to the shower and was ignored in September last year.
He became angry with the child, who then ran to the shower and was followed by SFW who took him from the shower and hit him on the back.
The tribunal heard the child screamed loud enough to attract the attention of his other siblings and mother who were in the house.
SFW told VCAT deputy president Heather Lambrick he believed at the time the punishment was appropriate discipline.
“He had always understood that it was his duty to ensure that his children acted respectfully toward their parents and others,” Ms Lambrick said.
“He emphasised that he did not strike his child through a loss of control brought about through drug or alcohol abuse, but that his conduct occurred because at the time he thought that corporal punishment was an appropriate means by which children could and should be disciplined,” she said.
“If there is ever an appropriate time to physically discipline a child, it is unlikely that it will be at a time when an adult is angry.”
SFW, from Singapore, told the tribunal he believed it was legal to punish his child in the way he did.
“In Singapore and many other countries, children are routinely disciplined by their parents through the use of a cane and/or other forms of corporal punishment,” Ms Lambrick said.
“Conversely, in countries such as New Zealand, any form of corporal punishment is illegal. The question of corporal punishment in Australia is a more complex question.
“It is still legal in Australia for parents to physically punish their children, however, in doing so parents run the very real risk that their conduct, if excessive in its nature, will amount to a breach of the criminal law and will attract the attention of the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Ms Lambrick overturned the decision to cancel SFW’s working with children permit.
She said since the offending SFW had undertaken a variety of courses including anger management courses, a men’s behavioural change course and a parenting course.
He had also consulted with a psychologist.
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Ms Lambrick said SFW was an impressive witness who had “resolved to never again discipline his children using corporal punishment of any kind”.
“I accepted his evidence. I accept that he has not only taken the charges and other interventions seriously but that he has reflected with great care on his actions,” she said.
Ms Lambrick said she was satisfied that SFW had learnt from his conduct, had previously been a positive role model for children, and was satisfied he did not pose an ongoing risk to children.