Hail Ants, the kid is four years old. Slapping her 15 to 20 times comes darn close to “beating the shit out of her.” The daughter may have had a temper tantrum. Kids do that. You remove them from the store; you give them time-outs; you might spank them. You do not repeatedly hit them in the face and torso.
Certainly she should not have hit the child like that, but she also does not deserve the massive amounts of media attention either. Her life is effectively ruined now, who would employ her? I often wonder what it is that makes the media focus on one child or another. Hundreds of kids go missing every week, yet the media’s focus is always on one or two. Why them?
Welcome, Bongmaster, to the SDMB. 
I doubt that her has been ruined by this incident. We’ll probably forget all about it before long. Remember much about the 10yr old boy in Richmond, CA who was mauled by the three pit bulls a little over a year ago? And anyway, I’d probably hire her if she were qualified for the job. Wouldn’t you?
And again, I didn’t see any massive coverage. Never once did I see it repeated on any single (local tv) newscast after the initial story. Maybe the content so drew our attention that the coverage seemed more massive than it was. I see “feel good” stories get as much attention, but they don’t imprint on us as much as these kinds of stories do. I don’t watch CNN and such. Maybe that’s the difference.
Peace,
mangeorge
Do you have a cite for his? just curious. The media seems to focus more on stranger kidnappings vs. ex-partner kidnappings, but the missing kids seem to have dropped off the front page again, which is a shame.