According to Gladys Bird, she witnessed the two-year-old son of her neighbors, Anthony and Felicia Morgan, drinking from a Bud Light can during a backyard barbecue. She then saw a man come out of the Morgan home, yell, “Where is my damn beer?”, and then spank the child. Bird reported the incident to police and social services, who removed the child from the home while the incident was investigated. After regaining custody of their son, the Morgans filed suit against Bird and the state agencies involved for defamation and other claims. The Kentucky Court of Appeals refused to allow the suit to proceed because the Morgans failed to show that any party had acted in bad faith. For the complete story, click here.
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So they are saying it is wrong for babies to drink beer?
That’s probably understood…
You know, if I saw my two year old drinking my beer, I’d've probably swatted his behind, too. Am I a bad mother?
Definitely not. But if report the drinking and swatting, without something more, you don’t have a claim of defamation against me.
I’m just amazed that DHS took the kid.
Because this was the lawsuit related to defamation, we didn’t get all of the facts regarding DHS’s decision. It does seem improbable that DHS would remove him from the home over this incident, but we don’t know all the information DHS did at that time.