When it comes to disciplining our children, one would believe that – once our actions are within reason – we should be allowed to make our own judgments in the privacy of our own homes and lives.
This belief has been somewhat turned on its head in recent times, principally due to a report documenting how a father in the US was arrested and charged with property theft for confiscating his 12-year-old daughter’s iPhone.
Ronald Jackson, 36, saw the charges against him dropped this week, following a two-year-long legal battle. Having found that there was not enough evidence to continue the case against him, a Dallas court ordered the jury to find him not guilty and dismissed the case.
The case dates back to 2013, when Jackson’s daughter angered him by sending an insulting message about his girlfriend and her children. Jackson and his daughter’s mother, Michelle Steppe, were separated and sharing custody at the time.
After spotting the text, Jackson took his daughter’s iPhone away and refused to give it back to her. She then proceeded to go around to a friend’s house, where she called her mother and explained what had occurred.
Jackson was left understandably shocked when police officers were sent around to his house to try and get the phone back for his daughter. At that point, Jackson ‘made a stand’.
He told local news site WFAA: “I decided the police don’t interfere with my ability to parent my daughter.”
Mum Michelle stood behind her daughter the entire time, admitting that while she had no issue with Jackson confiscating the phone as punishment, he was wrong in not returning his daughter’s ‘property’.
When Jackson would not budge, Steppe sent him a demand letter and he also received a citation for petty theft. He was even offered a plea deal in exchange for the phone, but he decided to stand firm and opt for a trial instead.
Things came to a head when, months after the legal battle began, Jackson was awoken during the night and arrested – local authorities were keen to keep the matter out of the courts.
After a two-day trial last week, the charges against Jackson were dropped, but the damage done to the family is irreversible, according to reports.
Steppe told local media that Jackson’s relationship with their daughter is ‘ruined’, and the teen has now asked her father to relinquish his parental rights so that she can be adopted by her stepfather. Jackson has agreed, and this matter is pending in the courts.
Jackson, meanwhile, is not about to go quietly after his legal win – he is reportedly planning a federal civil rights claim against the police department over his treatment throughout the debacle.
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