Education or Abuse?

          Couple Accused Making 3-Year-Old Fight

KILLEEN, Texas - A Fort Hood soldier and his wife have been accused of injury to a child for allegedly forcing their 3-year-old daughter to beat up an older boy as they videotaped it, Killeen police said.

Dennis Michael Bittinger, 22, was arrested Wednesday and his wife, Rhonda Nicole Bittinger, 23, was taken into custody Thursday, police said.

The fight allegedly occurred Saturday while the couple babysat for the 5-year-old son of a friend, police said. When the boy's mother arrived to pick him up, she turned on the couple's video camera, which had previously been used to tape the children playing.

Police said the tape shows the soldier commanding his daughter to knock the victim down, kick him and hit him in the face. The girl follows her father's instructions as the boy cries and pleads for her to stop, police said.

The tape also shows the man declaring his daughter the "winner," and he shoves the boy and demands to know why he didn't defend himself, police said.

Bond has been set at $100,000 each for the husband and wife, who were being held in the Bell County Jail Thursday night. It wasn't immediately clear if they had a lawyer.  Link

                                        What do YOU think?

Comments

[Phoenix]

I think this couple somehow managed to escape Darwin's waiting room.

[Steel]

Darwin doesn't have a 'waiting' room.

He has a morgue.

[Phoenix]

Of course he has a waiting room.

For those who have not evolved fully yet.

[mdmhvonpa]

Cripes ... this is why I insist that the kids tell the teacher about 'foul play' but I'm still enrolling them in martial arts training. Adults are unreliable.

[Will]

I remember getting out of school in 6th grade and beginning to walk home when we saw these two 8th grade girls yelling at each other. The mother of one of the girls pulls up to pick up her daughter, opens the passenger door, and yells to the other girl "If you want to fight her Jenny, then fucking fight her." It was on. Hair pulling, rolling around in the street, nails, torn clothes, and of course numerous yellings of "stupid bitch" and "cunt." Best catfight I ever saw.

[Steel]

Heh.

I used to get in a lot of after school fights.

The first really serious one was in the 5th grade.

The kid busted my nose.

Kicked my ass.

Your grandfather wasn't pleased.

He had my older cousin come over and give me 'lessons'.

Basically he kicked my ass for a few weeks in my spare time.

That didn't help much, but gettin' my nose broke DID.

I made it a point to not get hit and to hit as hard and often as I could from the get go.

Worst I did after then was bloody draw.

[Phoenix]

Hah... Will.... NO ONE fights nastier than a couple of chicks. Teachers were told never, ever to get 'into' a fight between the kids. But when you saw someone getting beat up, it was almost impossible not to jump in. Of course, every fight was immediately ensconced in a wall of students cheering one side on or the other and getting through this wall was the first battle for the teacher. I got into a few and got tossed around a bunch, but I always went back into the fray because it was too deadly not to.

The ONLY fight male and female teachers would NOT jump into was a fight between two black girls. We are talking some serious stuff here. I was on duty in some obscure long hallway before school when a fight broke out between two REALLY big black girls. They ripped and tore and snarled and cussed, and I was screaming and yelling for onlookers to go get help. Nothing could get these girls' attention. I'd get in close and yell at the top of my lungs and some student, worried about my safety, would yank me back. Finally, one girl ripped the buttons off the other girl's shirt. The other girl promptly did the same to the other. The fight went on with hair flying as bad as cuss words. Their great humongous boobs were flying around like missiles out of orbit. I sucked in real hard and yelled at the top of my voice: YOUR BOOBS ARE SHOWING !!! YOUR BOOBS ARE SHOWING !!! heh. They both glanced down... grabbed for what was left of their shirts and stalked off. By the time help got there, the crowd had dispersed and the only evidence that there'd been an altercation was clumps of hair and shirt down half the long hallway. eeeu. Bad one...

[Phoenix]

Mark,

Get your kids some martial arts lessons, but don't let them get beyond a Brown Belt. Parker was a second degree Black Belt when he left junior high, and he had to register at the high school. ! He was considered a deadly weapon. A few rednecks found out he had his belt, and just for grins used to taunt him. Well, he's not the kind of kid you want to taunt. He is r e a l l y quiet - except with his friends...... and this was a lure to these idiots. The taunting, bullying went on his sophomore year and usually took place at lunch when there were a lot of kids around for 'witnesses'. These fools knew Parker couldn't touch them or he'd get kicked out of school. That is.... unless it was self-defense. During the second semester when Parker had a vehicle, he was surrounded by these guys after school one day. What bugged these guys is that Parker never once uttered a word to them. It drove them nuts.

I never knew this until a year or so later. But evidently they hassled Parker and one whapped him in the back of the head. ahhh... I'd love to have seen it, but before anyone knew what happened, the kid was on his face. Parker turned when the kid hit him and as he turned, did a round-house kick, or something like that, and ended up five feet in the air with his foot in this guy's nose. He did not break the kid's nose. I asked Parker about this later, after his buddies gleefully told me every detail,.. why he didn't break the kid's nose, and he said, "I could have put it out the back of his head, but I didn't want to get in trouble." ha. ha. ha.

Anyway, keep the kids at brown belt. It's a whole lot LESS hassle.