A 24-year-old woman in West Virginia has been charged with child abuse after allegedly beating her 7-year-old stepdaughter with a belt when the girl said her punishment did not hurt.
MaCayla Ashton Johnson was taken into custody and charged with one count of child abuse by a parent or guardian creating a substantial risk of bodily injury, court records show.
The case came to light on Sept. 15, when a Randolph County Schools employee contacted the county sheriff’s office to report possible abuse of a student, according to a report from The Inter-Mountain, a local news website.
The employee said the victim’s father had called and said there had been “an incident the evening before that ‘went too far’ and he wanted to let her know before the teachers noticed.”
The father reportedly told the school that Johnson was punishing his daughter for not listening when the child stated that “it didn’t hurt.” Johnson then “commanded that [the victim] should feel pain and grabbed a belt.”
A school employee later observed bruises on the girl’s arms, hand and lower back and referred the matter to Child Protective Services, the newspaper reported. The sheriff’s office asked the employee to photograph the injuries and forward them to investigators.
During an interview with detectives, Johnson allegedly admitted to hitting the child with a belt. She said she typically spanked the girl with an “open palm,” but she had “been going through a lot” after the death of a family member and felt “bombarded,” according to a report from Weston.
She also acknowledged disciplining the girl with a belt on two previous occasions, explaining that she would “only use about 4 to 5 inches of the tip of the belt opposite the buckle end,” the station reported.
Johnson reportedly described the child moving between the toilet and bathtub during the incident and asked the victim, “If [the] punishment don’t hurt, why are you fighting it?”
Asked how the child sustained bruises on her arms, hands and back, Johnson allegedly said the marks came from the girl attempting to block the belt strikes, Morgantown, West Virginia-based radio station WAJR reported.
Johnson appeared in court on Oct. 17 and pleaded not guilty to the abuse charge. She is being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond. It was not immediately clear when she is scheduled to make her next court appearance.