California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is, by most accounts, a serious-minded legislator who doesn't seek the spotlight.

But it's on her this week, whether she likes it or not.

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click illustration for larger image. Web chat Join Mackenzie Carpenter tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m. for an online chat on whether the government should outlaw spanking, at www.post-gazette.com/chat.

Ever since Ms. Lieber announced in early January that she would be introducing a bill outlawing the spanking of children age 3 and under, she has been called everything from a flake to Big Brother to Big "Mother" -- and worse. She's been denounced by fellow legislators and given more than 100 interviews and has heard from people as far away as Turkey, China and Israel.

And while some are supportive, many are "pretty hot under thc collar," she says, about the notion of the government regulating what many consider a private family matter: the physical discipline of children.

It's a debate that has simmered for years among parents and in child development circles, but Ms. Lieber, a Democrat from Mountain View, "the heart of Silicon Valley," is perfectly happy to turn up the heat if it means people will think first before raising their hand to a child.

"I sort of feel a responsibility to get the issue out there while the interest is high," Ms. Lieber said, adding that she came up with the bill after a discussion with a UCLA law professor on the roots of juvenile crime.

"Children are the only people society allows us to hit," she said. "Adults aren't allowed to go out and smack each other."

Ms. Lieber's bill, which will be introduced this week, would make California the first state to prohibit parents from spanking their own young children -- although 29 states, including Pennsylvania, have already outlawed corporal punishment in the schools.

Sally Lieber

If caught, parents would face penalties ranging from required parenting classes to a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail or a $1,000 fine.

California is not the first state to consider a spanking ban. A Wisconsin legislator introduced a similar bill in the early 1990s that went nowhere, as did lawmakers last year in Massachusetts. Internationally, Sweden outlawed spanking nearly 30 years ago, and 16 countries currently prohibit it, according to the Center for Effective Discipline in Columbus, Ohio, an anti-spanking group.

A similar ban was overturned in Canada's courts after being described as an infringement of parental discretion, and even Ms. Lieber admits that she faces an uphill battle in this country.

"While all the major human rights organizations support the view that children should be recorded the same rights as all human beings, there are deep-seated views in the U.S. about children as property," she said.

Indeed, judging from the response to Ms. Lieber's initiative, there seems to be a vast disconnect between child development experts, many of whom oppose the practice of spanking, and the general public. On the one hand, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a statement saying spanking is "harmful emotionally to both parent and child" and that "not only can it result in physical harm, but it teaches children that violence is an acceptable way to discipline or express anger."

At the same time, the academy estimates that 90 percent of American parents have spanked their children at one time or another, which may be why one poll found only 23 percent of Californians supported Ms. Lieber's bill.

When readers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were asked to weigh in, the e-mail response was overwhelmingly opposed to government prohibition of spanking.

"I'm not a proponent of child abuse, but the well-aimed spank to the butt can do wonders," said Charlene Shaw of Slippery Rock, who cited a recent incident where a family was kicked off an AirTran flight because the child was having a tantrum.

"That child literally held her permissive parents -- and an entire airplane -- hostage for well over 15 minutes while she 'expressed herself,' " noted Ms. Shaw. "Had either of her parents given her one good whack to get her attention, they would not have been ejected from the plane. Sadly, all the mother could offer in way of protest was that 'she was not allowed to hold and console' the child, who was at that point a mini-monster running the show."

Many e-mail respondents disputed the notion that spanking is "violence," as defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Any psychobabble that this leads to a violent adulthood is ridiculous and without merit," said Drew Polczynski of North Huntingdon. "There's nothing wrong with spanking your child. Beating your child is a different story. Spanking is an effective parenting technique, and the government has no business telling us how to raise our children if it doesn't place the child in harm's way."

Aaron Peternel, a youth pastor at the Free Methodist Church in Monongehela, says he spanks his own three children, although he doesn't see it as "the first weapon in the arsenal of discipline."

Still, "to take it away can diminish the role of a parent as the absolute law and breed a contempt that manifests itself later in these words, 'What are you gonna do?'"

The Rev. Peternel says he's careful not to spank his children when he's angry, and he uses a spoon -- nicknamed "Bertha" -- rather than his bare hand.

"I never want my kids to see my hand as something that brings pain," he said.

There were a handful of dissenters, among them Ed Rideout, a Pittsburgh native and assistant professor of mass communications at Paine College in Augusta, Ga., who described himself as "a 42-year-old black male with conservative Christian values."

"Spanking children should be a crime," he said, noting that the practice hurts children "emotionally, mentally and spiritually."

"Many of these children grow up to become violent adults who resort to violence to solve their problems, both large and small," he said, noting that he never spanked his daughter, a co-captain of Penn State's basketball team. Today, not only is she confident "both on and off the court ... she is driven, intellectually sharp and compassionate. There is clearly a direct correlation between self-confidence and unconditional love, particularly with one's parents and family members."

"We are willing to tolerate doing things to kids that we would never tolerate someone doing to us as adults," noted Dr. Walter Smith, director of Family Resources Inc., a Pittsburgh-based child-abuse prevention agency and a vocal opponent of the practice.

"Do I think spanking always damages a child emotionally? No. I think you can give a little slap on the behind, to get their attention. But there's still a double standard there."

And yet, he, like other child-rearing experts, feels uncomfortable with Ms. Lieber's solution.

"I don't think government should be in the business of regulating parenting," he said, "but we should educate parents on how to set limits and boundaries without using physical force."

In the end, it's a matter of emphasis and priorities, said Dr. Kyle Pruett, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale University Child Study Center.

While he doesn't hide his contempt for spanking -- "I'm not a big fan of adult temper tantrums" -- he's less concerned about this controversy and more worried about government funding for Head Start, health care, pre-kindergarten programs and other initiatives to improve the lives of children.

"I'd much rather we'd get our values in order before government starts messing around in the parenting arena," Dr. Pruett said. "If we can't convince people that children are the greatest treasure they'll ever own, it won't happen by government regulation."

Ms. Lieber acknowledges that the whole notion of parental discretion in child-rearing is complicated. When it comes to defining those boundaries, the legal standards "are very vague," she said. The law prohibits parents from doing only "what's unreasonable or unjustifiable, and that opens it up to almost anything. Is a swat from a 125-pound mother the same as from a 220-pound father? We're still trying to figure that out. "

She also is focusing on younger children because "they tend to be more confined to the home, so if they're abused, people might not see it as much as they would with an older child, who goes to school."

"It's interesting to see how in many cases of real child abuse, parents just describe it as being about discipline," she added. "But children are being spanked for soiling a diaper or blocking a parents' view of a television set."

And despite the flak she's received, Ms. Lieber believes that one day, society will come around.

"After all," she said, "20 years ago, it wasn't considered polite to intervene in domestic violence situations."