Update, 9:04 a.m., June 22, 2016 
 
 
 
 'It's been hell,' says Baton Rouge mom jailed for allegedly beating sons after catching them burglarizing home 
 
 Original story: 
 
 A Baton Rouge mother who caught her three sons breaking into a residence was arrested Tuesday after she whipped them as a punishment, East Baton Rouge deputies said. 
 
 But the decision to jail 30-year-old Schaquana Evita Spears on child cruelty counts was questioned by the local district attorney and scolded by strangers as far away as California, prompting a debate about where to draw the line between well-meaning discipline and child abuse. 
 
 Even Lisa Nicholson, the 45-year-old neighbor who said it was her house that was burglarized by Spears’ children, said she thought the single mother of six should be commended, not arrested. Though she wasn’t home at the time of the break-in, Nicholson said that as the homeowner she could have had killed the boys out of panic when they busted her back window. 
 
 “If it was me,” she said, “I’m gonna beat you before I let the cops kill you. I’m gonna do what I have to do. I’m not gonna let (my children) steal and kill and do all of that. I’m not gonna let them fall victim to the streets.” 
 
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 Spears, who has worked as a cook and opened a small catering business, admitted she hit her three sons — ages 10, 12 and 13 — after she caught them breaking into the residence near her house at 5470 Satinwood Drive on Friday, according to a Sheriff’s Office report. 
 
 Her 13-year-old son, interviewed by child services officials at the juvenile detention center, told authorities Spears struck him multiple times with an RCA cord. RCA cables are used to connect devices like VCRs and DVD players to TV sets or CD players to stereo receivers. 
 
 He had lacerations to both of his arms and marks across his leg, shoulder, back and stomach, causing some bleeding, the report says. 
 
 Juvenile justice officials said they could not reveal why the son was at the juvenile facility. 
 
 The other two boys also had some injuries, with the 12-year-old showing cuts on his arm and the youngest child receiving a small scratch to the hand, according to the document. Spears was accused of two counts of cruelty to juveniles. 
 
 “Surely you would expect a parent to discipline a child who is burglarizing other people’s homes as this could be a deadly encounter for the child,” said East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III, whose office would handle Spears’ criminal charges, if they are prosecuted. 
 
 Moore said Spears’ case is being reviewed, including the seriousness of the boys’ injuries. He noted she has no prior convictions. 
 
 Spears’ criminal history includes a theft count in 2008 which was dismissed, according to court records. 
 
 In the Friday incident, her sons stole a hoverboard, electronics and socks from Nicholson’s house, and Spears immediately ordered the boys to return the items, Nicholson said. The goods belonged to Nicholson’s 13-year-old son, Trayquan, who said some but not all of his belongings have been returned. 
 
 “We oftentimes see children who have no parental authority or discipline which eventually results in delinquency and criminal acts,” Moore said. “We need more parents who discipline their children.” 
 
 Glenn Nettles, 53, came by Spears’ empty house Tuesday to see if his friend was inside. Nettles said Spears called him from jail, telling him her children were now being cared for by her mother, who lives out of town. He said he believes Spears’ 13-year-old is her eldest. 
 
 “She loves her kids. She don’t beat her kids,” Nettles said, noting the distinction, echoed by Nicholson, between “beating,” abuse that might involve chains and fists, and “whupping,” which he said is an acceptable form of punishment. 
 
 “Everybody �?whup’ their kids,” he said. “They do something wrong. What are you supposed to do?” 
 
 Nettles said he used to train Spears when they worked in the kitchen at the Hilton Garden Inn, calling her a “real sweet” person. 
 
 A Facebook page that appears to belong to Spears shows a business card for “MyHeartInIt Catering & Creationz,” listing her name and address. The profile includes many pictures of elaborate culinary spreads, some with pineapples sprouting from towers of fruit. 
 
 No one answered the door at her one-story house on Tuesday. A toddler’s toy scooter was the only vehicle outside. 
 
 Casey Rayborn Hicks, spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, said she was unable to comment on the criticisms of Spears’ arrest. 
 
 An online article in The Advocate about Spears on Tuesday drew some 1,200 comments by that night, as well as at least one donation pledge from a stranger in Oakland, California. 
 
 Louis Villa, 83, called the paper asking where he could pay Spears’ $2,500 bail. 
 
 “I had a single parent, and hey, she had to discipline us. Yeah, I got hit by an ironing cord, but it made me a better person. It saved my life,” Villa said, adding he imagined Spears might be like his mother: a single black mom who might not have the support she needs. 
 
 “She explained why she had to hit us, why she had to discipline us, why we had to be home at a certain time,” Villa said. “It just is not easy for black women in America.” 
 
 Nettles said an acquaintance who works as a lawyer is trying to help Spears post bail. As of Tuesday night, records showed Spears was still an inmate. ||||| Mom thought she was doing the right thing when she whipped kids who broke into home 
 
 BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge mother who was arrested by East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's deputies after she admitted to whipping her sons as punishment for breaking into a house has bonded out of jail. She told our cameras she thought she was doing the right thing by disciplining her children. 
 
 30-year-old Schaquana Spears was booked on child cruelty charges Monday morning. 
 
 The arrest reports says her 13-year-old reportedly told East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office detectives that Spears had struck him with an RCA cord multiple times. The boy had cuts on both arms and marks across his body, according to investigators. 
 
 The other two boys, aged 10 and 12, also had injuries, according to arrest documents. 
 
 Spears was booked into the parish prison on two counts of cruelty to juveniles with bond set at $2,500. 
 
 District Attorney Hillar Moore released a statement about the incident: 
 
 "Parents have the right and obligation to discipline and teach their children. We often time see children who have no parental authority or discipline which eventually results in delinquency and criminal acts. We need more parents who discipline their children. Surely you would expect a parent to discipline a child who is burglarizing other people’s homes as this could be a deadly encounter for the child. The degree of physical discipline will be reviewed. The law does not allow excessive pain or cruelty but does allow physical parental discipline. I only have the short synopsis which does indicate that the discipline resulted in marks on the child’s body and possibly an open wound. I will review all of the reports; meet with the DCFS office and review any history of this mother and her children to get a better picture of the entire family dynamics before making a decision. In the meantime my office is working with the juvenile court to ensure the speedy release of the mother under conditions satisfactory to the court." 
 
 News 2's Brett Buffington was there when Spears bonded out of jail Tuesday night. 
 
 "They're just being kids, being followers," Spears said. "I thought I was showing them this is not what you do. You do not steal people's stuff, what they work hard for. I know how that feels, I've had my house broken into." 
 
 She told News 2 that someone saw her story on TV and showed up to post her bond for her. 
 
 Multiple crowdfunding campaigns appeared in the mid-morning hours of Wednesday on sites like GoFundMe and Plumfund. The GoFundMe account had garnered more than $700 in donations as of 11 a.m. with the stated aim being "to find suitable care for her children during the summer (if she needs it)." Just 20 minutes later that campaign was no longer active. News 2 has reached out to the creators of the donation campaigns but have not received a reply at the time of this writing. ||||| Spare the rod? Welfare chief, attorney for arrested Baton Rouge mom differ on what constitutes child abuse 
 
 Spare the rod? Welfare chief, attorney for arrested Baton Rouge mom differ on what constitutes child abuse 
 
 The way to tell when disciplining a child has gone too far is when a child is left bleeding or with cuts, burns or bruises, the state’s top child welfare official said Thursday. 
 
 Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters said in a statement that she felt “compelled to address a question many are asking” about child abuse but didn’t specify any particular case she was addressing. 
 
 “Reasonable, constructive discipline is a healthy part of parenting and an essential element of child rearing, but it crosses into abuse when it leaves a child cut, burned, bloody or bruised. We’re referring to something more than a mere ‘spanking,’ ” she said. 
 
 The statement comes amid a controversy over the arrest Tuesday of Schaquana Evita Spears, a 30-year-old Baton Rouge mother booked on two counts of cruelty to juveniles after she admitted to striking three of her sons with a cord, leaving two of them with cuts and one bloodied. She said she “whipped” the children after she found out they broke a neighbor’s window and stole some $1,700 worth of equipment, including a hoverboard, video game systems, a computer and other items, according to an East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office report. 
 
 Spears, who was released late Tuesday night after a judge reduced her bail, attracted defenders from across the country, including state Treasurer John Kennedy, who wrote an open letter to Walters calling for leniency on Spears. 
 
 “If you are planning to keep or take these children away from their mother simply because she disciplined them for stealing, that would be a ludicrous step to take,” Kennedy wrote in the letter. 
 
 “In biblical times, sparing the rod led to a spoiled child. In modern times, sparing the rod leads to an imprisoned child,” he wrote. 
 
 Spears, a single parent, said Wednesday she is working to regain custody of her six children, who are being cared for by their grandmother. Spears did not respond to a query Thursday. 
 
 “We are terribly upset she was arrested in the first place,” said Spears’ attorney, Brenden Craig. “We think the arresting agency would have been better served taking more time to investigate. I suggest they could have applied for a warrant, but they didn’t do that. They slapped the cuffs on her.” 
 
 Casey Rayborn Hicks, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, the agency that arrested Spears, said she does not have a response. 
 
 Craig said just because Spears’ children had cuts or were bleeding does not mean his client is guilty of a crime. 
 
 “She was doing everything a mother should do,” he said, adding that his client loves her children. “What occurred did not constitute abuse.” 
 
 Craig said he could not comment on the custody status of Spears’ children. 
 
 Walters said the Department of Children and Family Services encourages anyone with questions about child development and appropriate discipline to call Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana’s “Kidline” at ( 800) CHILDREN, which is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. ||||| "I heard a scream -- the worst scream you ever want to hear in your life," she said. She went to help the 12-year-old girl, who told Lewis her brother was trying to kill her mother. Lewis' husband, Corde, 39, went to the residence and kicked in the door with three other neighbors, he said. He said the door was difficult to open because it was dead-bolted and the woman was lying in front of it. He said she was lying in a pool of blood with knife sitting next to her. He did not see the son. 
 
 Berry saw the whole family together at the zoo weeks ago and said the son never had problems at daycare, she said. "It was not that kind of family," she said. "I'm floored. I’m absolutely floored." Odom was respected by her children and was a good mother, she said. “She loved her children dearly and would do anything for them,” she said. “This is just a horrible tragedy.” 
 
 Authorities say a woman has died after being beaten with a frying pan.The Flint Journal reports police were called to the family's home Monday afternoon after the woman's 12-year-old daughter told neighbors that her brother was hitting her mother with a frying pan.Police say the woman died at the hospital and her son also was hospitalized in serious condition. The newspaper reports that the teenager had bandages on his arms when police took him away first to a local hospital then to the police station to be charged in the murder of his mother.Neighbor Kelly Lewis, who lives a few houses down from the incident, said she noticed the girl outside shaking and heard noises coming from the property.Police arrived within 15 minutes, the couple said, and were able to take the son away, who had bandages on his arms, neighbors said.Kathryn Berry, who owns Berry’s Child Care Center in Flint, said she has known Victoria Odom and her family for years and cared for the son until he was 12 years old. She said she is “floored” by this incident and called the whole family wonderful.The grandmother, who is still in shock, is trying to keep the children comforted and together during this terrible period they are experiencing as a family following the death of their mother, who has been described as a loving and devoted single parent.
– Appropriate parenting or criminal behavior? That's the question being asked across the US in regards to the case of a Louisiana woman arrested Monday for whipping her young sons after they burglarized a neighbor's house. Among the people speaking up for Schaquana Evita Spears, a 30-year-old single mom of six, is Lisa Nicholson—the woman whose Baton Rouge home Spears's sons, ages 13, 12, and 10, broke into. "I would prefer for her to spank her own kids than for them to come into someone's house and for [the homeowner] to kill them," Nicholson tells the Advocate. The fate they faced instead after allegedly stealing what the Advocate reports was $1,700 in goods, including a computer and hoverboard: Per the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office report, the oldest boy's wounds were bleeding, and the 12-year-old's skin was broken by the lashes. WBRZ reports the 13-year-old's injuries were on his arms, with marks on his body, and he told police an RCA cable was used; the youngest boy had a small scratch on the hand. In a statement, the District Attorney Hillar Moore said the case is under review and noted "the law does not allow excessive pain or cruelty but does allow physical parental discipline." But some experts, referencing a 2016 study, tell the Advocate that corporal punishment is not effective and can actually lead to worse behavior. "It's been hell," Spears—whose kids were, as of Wednesday, in the care of a grandmother—tells WBRZ. "I never could imagine trying to be a good mother would end me up in jail." A GoFundMe page set up for Spears says she lost her job over the incident. "Jus [sic] want my life back," she wrote on Facebook on Friday. (These bank workers were publicly spanked for "not exceeding themselves.")