Woman facing cruelty charges after locking children in dog kennel

A Gasparillo woman is facing cruelty charges after allegedly locking her children in a dog kennel.

The children’s father brought the issue to the police’s attention earlier this year.

He went to a police station in the South Western Division and told officers his sons, ages six and seven, complained about the methods their mother used to discipline them.

The children told their father she had locked them in the dog kennel and basement as punishment.

Officers from the Southern Division Special Victims Department visited the mother and interviewed her but she denied the allegations.

Officers went to the woman’s home on the night of December 12 and arrested her.

The woman faces seven counts of cruelty.

The matter has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for guidance and charges are expected to be laid in the coming days.

Meanwhile, clinical traumatologist Haniff Benjamin told Newsday parents must be careful when disciplining their children to not cross into the realm of cruelty.

“Discipline is meant to teach. Discipline should never be meant to create harm or hurt.

“So if we are disciplining by the nature of the word, it is meant to guide and teach our children. Locking someone in a dog kennel definitely does not go in terms of discipline. That is cruel and unusual."

Benjamin said regardless of what would have led to the incident, it should never happen.

He said the incident will have a long-lasting effect on the children.

“The trauma, not just immediately but medium and long term, is going to be reverberating for years.”

He said the children also risked being susceptible to bullying if people in their community became aware of the incident.

Benjamin said while there were laws to address the situation, proper training could prevent it from ever happening.

“I also want to advocate for parents to really get training and development, especially parents who might be frustrated and don't know how to navigate difficulties."

He called for more resources to be directed to helping children and families navigate disciplinary challenges.

“We have to figure out how to help parents to deal with situations in a healthy and safe way that will cause their child to get developmental learning and not cause issues like this to happen.”