Discipline or Abuse? The Case of a Mother Jailed for Trying to Protect Her Kids
JB Quinnon
May 2
2 min read
When a mother found out her children had committed a crime, she didn’t call the police. She didn’t turn her back. She acted—swiftly, physically, and out of fear. Not fear of her kids, but fear for them.
She saw what the justice system can do. How it chews up young Black youth and spits them out harder, colder, institutionalized. So she took matters into her own hands. To her, the punishment wasn’t abuse—it was a wake-up call. A desperate attempt to keep them out of a system that has no love for them.
But that decision landed her in a jail cell.
In the eyes of the law, physical punishment—even by a parent—has limits. When bruises are left behind, the conversation shifts from discipline to criminal behavior. No matter her intent, the system judged her actions by impact. And now, the children she tried to protect are left with the trauma of seeing their mother handcuffed.
This case raises difficult, emotional questions:
When is tough love too tough?
Do we criminalize parenting under pressure?
How do we hold kids accountable without handing them to a system designed to break them?
Some will say she was wrong—there are other ways to discipline. Others will argue that a system that fails to protect our children from cycles of crime and incarceration shouldn’t get the final word on how we parent them.
Either way, the debate is far from over. And so is the need for deeper conversations about race, discipline, and survival.
What do you think? Was she a protector… or did she go too far?
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