By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Good behaviors begin at home, according to Guam’s attorney general, who endorses traditional child-rearing, which involves the parents’ “fundamental right to discipline their children" with corporal punishment without governmental nannying.
“Guam needs more parents being closely involved in raising their children to become respectful, disciplined and law-abiding adults,” Douglas Moylan said in his written testimony on Bill 351-37, which would allow a minor under 16 to be tried as an adult if charged with criminal sexual offense.
Moylan said the bill, sponsored by Sens. Frank Blas and Joanne Brown, is designed to address “the core issue of accountability.”
The bill, he added, would make both minors and their parents “aware that the family court will not be a shield of right against justice for our community and those hurt by minors.”
Corporal punishment at home and in schools is legal on Guam.
Guam’s family law authorizes parents and teachers to “use necessary force upon the minor" to safeguard or promote his welfare, "including prevention and punishment of his misconduct,” as long as the force used does not “create a substantial risk of causing extreme pain or gross degradation.”
Moylan said Guam's law is consistent with the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the “fundamental right of a parent to control and raise their children without the government unduly interfering."
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“It’s also recognized in criminal code as a defense to parent or guardian being guilty of assault upon their child or ward when disciplining a child,” the attorney general said.
“How, what age and where on body applied by a parent disciplining can be subject to scrutiny crossing the line into child abuse and assault,” he added.
In an Aug. 18, 2023 letter to Police Chief Stephen Ignacio, Moylan provided legal guidelines to assist law enforcement officers processing criminal complaints against parents or guardians “who may be investigated
for allegations of assault or child abuse.”
“Most parents, be they police officers or otherwise, know the difference between ‘child abuse’ where corporal punishment is taken too far outside the statute parameters, and good parenting,” Moylan said. “Corporal punishment is legal on Guam, but at the same time child abuse is a crime.”
In the legislature, Moylan endorsed Bill 351-37, saying it calls attention to the consequences of bad actions.
The bill, according to its authors, would address a loophole in Guam’s criminal justice system in which offenders who commit sexual assaults as minors skip prosecution even after they reach adulthood by the time their crimes are discovered.
“You do not see a public trial in family court proceedings, and other juveniles do not see the social stigma associated with punishment that could create
peer pressure to deter abhorrent behaviors,” Moylan said.
“We as a people need more tools to correct parents’ inabilities to properly raise their children. This bill opens the valve to a certain extent,” he added.
“A loving parent does not have to hit or not hit their child. A loving parent will use the type of discipline that parent believes is needed to make a child who respects the rules and authority,” Moylan said, noting that the law enforcement sector has seen a consistent pattern of minors engaging in crimes, such as thefts, vandalism and other “gang-type” activities.
“Confidential and closed family court proceedings lack the deterrence that comes from open public justice,” Moylan said.
“This bill lightly touches upon the balance of saving a minor from the damage of an open trial versus the importance of deterrence and public justice for all of us to know that a wrong has been righted," he added.
Moylan cited the case of Georgia’s 14-year-old Colt Gray, who was accused of shooting two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School. His father, Colin Gray, was also being charged for the murders.
On Guam, Moylan said, the family court is filled with troubled youth “whose parents were absent or did not care enough to discipline their kids to teach them the difference between right and wrong.”
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