Back in December, a California lawmaker by the name of Joaquin Arambula was arrested for a reason that shocked his constituents, he had been accused of abusing his 7-year-old daughter. What makes his case particularly notable, besides the fact that he’s an elected official, is that the abuse that he inflicted upon his daughter was a spanking.

Now, we know that spanking is a hot button issue that usually doesn’t involve much middle ground, but it just so happens to be one that has child behavioral experts concerned. You see, spanking has been proven to alter the behavior of children for the worse; in a 50-year study, researchers found that the people who had been spanked as children were more likely to exhibit anti-social behavior than the ones who were spared.

Whatever your thoughts on the subject may be, we can all agree that spanking is ‘iffy’ parental behavior that you probably wouldn’t want anyone else to know about outside of the home. That said, laws surrounding the discipline are still hazy. In California, the state in which Arambula and his family live, spanking technically isn’t considered illegal, but it IS illegal if the force were to be deemed “unreasonable.”

This “unreasonable” force is exactly the factor that determined the Fresno chairman of the Assembly’s budget subcommittee’s arrest. Although specifics of the case have yet to be released, we do know that the 7-year-old went to school the morning after she had been spanked and reported the incident to her teacher. According to the district attorney, the arrest was made and the children were placed in temporary protective custody because the child’s injury was “not on the buttocks.”

This points to something perhaps more serious going on in the lawmaker’s home, but no further details will be released until Arambula’s next court hearing on March 13th.

To get the full story on the lawmaker’s arrest and to hear about the alleged child abuse from the Arambula’s themselves, be sure to watch the video below.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this story. Are you surprised to hear of this arrest? Should parents be arrested for spanking their kids? Should Arambula resign from his job?