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Name: In re A.E.
Case #: B206270
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 8
Opinion Date: 11/05/2008
Summary

An anger management counseling order was appropriate where the father did not completely repudiate the mother’s harsh physical discipline of the minors. The mother and father were in the process of divorcing, and the mother had custody of the minors, while the father had visitation. A petition was sustained which alleged that the mother had physically abused the minors by hitting them with a spatula. It was the father who reported the abuse. However, at the disposition hearing, the father stated that he did not think the minors had been abused, and that he regretted having reported the incident. The minors were returned to the mother at the disposition, and visitation was ordered for the father. The father appealed from the dispositional order directing both parents to participate in anger management counseling because he was the nonoffending parent. The court rejected his argument, finding the order appropriate, as he did not unequivocally oppose the mother’s harsh and unsuitable corporal punishment. Further, failure to object to the order waived the issue on appeal.