Many countries have declared that corporal punishment, by definition, is not child abuse.  But the United States is apparently not one of those countries.

A California state court recently ruled that a woman who spanked her daughter with a wooden spoon – and was reported for child abuse – did not, in fact, commit child abuse.

According to court documents, Veronica Gonzalez was labeled a child abuser by the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services after striking her 12-year-old daughter with a wooden spoon with enough force to leave visible bruises. However, the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose overturned the ruling, writing, “we cannot say that the use of a wooden spoon to administer a spanking necessarily exceeds the bounds of reasonable parental discipline.”