Update: The charge against P.H. was dropped.
P.H., a 45-year-old Palm Coast resident of Whirlway Drive, a teacher at a Middle School in St. Augustine, and the mother of an elementary-age son, was arrested on a felony charge of child abuse Monday following a Department of Children and Families investigation that found P.H. allegedly whipped the boy eight or 10 times with a belt for peeing himself.
P.H. did so while her husband, Sean Borca, held down the boy, and violently enough that the boy bled, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s report.
The DCF investigator who had interviewed the boy summoned law enforcement. The DCF investigator had received a tip about the alleged beating of the boy, who attends an elementary school in St. Augustine. The investigator interviewed the child on Sunday, who described how he misbehaved and became unruly in church as he kept having to use the bathroom. Once home, he could no longer hold it, and accidentally urinated in his pants.
His mother got upset, took a black belt, and as the husband held him down, the boy told the investigator, his mother whipped him. He told the investigator he could see his mother “bring the belt up above her head and then strike.” After the beating the boy stated “that his buttocks began to bleed a little.” The investigator provided images documenting the boy’s injuries. The injuries, the investigator told a sheriff’s deputy, “appeared to be a series of repeated beatings with [a] belt leaving substantial redness and bruising covering most of the buttocks.”
When the deputy attempted to speak with the boy’s parents separately, they became upset with the deputy’s presence, but nevertheless did speak. The husband said he does not put a hand on the child since he is not his biological parent, leaving the disciplining to the child’s mother.
Borca has prior arrests and criminal charges in four separate incidents. In 2018 he was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery subsequent to a confrontation with his then-girlfriend. In 2020 he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery in an alleged confrontation with a different woman. The same year, he was charged with domestic battery in an alleged confrontation involving his 18-year-old son. He was not arrested ion that particular case. But after that battery charge was filed, he was arrested and booked at the Volusia Branch Jail on felony charges of domestic battery by strangulation, tampering with a witness and battery causing bodily harm, following an alleged confrontation involving his then-girlfriend. the The charges were dropped in all four cases. An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that he had faced charges only twice before, rather than four times.
P.H. told a deputy that she had altered the child’s ADHD medicine and didn’t act correctly after taking it. He had been acting up. So she whipped him with a belt four times on each side of his rear end, she told a deputy. “She stated when she hits him he doesn’t have any remorse or react and doesn’t feel pain,” the deputy reported. It isn’t clear how the child’s mother know what sort of pain the child suffers. The day she was interviewed and before the investigators’ arrival, she said she had slapped her son on the wrist “and he laughed at her, almost in a mocking manner,” as she recalled to the deputy.
P.H. was arrested and booked at the Flagler County jail on a felony charge of child abuse “without great bodily harm.” The Department of Children and Families took custody of the child and transported him to his biological father. Borca, declaring the matter a problem between the mother and father, refused to sign any paperwork either from the Sheriff’s Office or DFC.
P.H. at first appearance before a judge was be represented by a public defender, but subsequently was represented by a private attorney. She posted bail on $2,500 bond earlier today and was released. She is under court order to have no contact with her child. The order does not extend to other children. On March 9, she entered a plea of not guilty through her attorney, Matthew Maguire of Flagler Beach, who had also represented Borca previously.
The infliction of pain on children through corporal punishment, including paddling, at school or at home, is legal in Florida, as it is in all states, though it has been outlawed in about 50 nations. The infliction of pain under Florida law must be “reasonable.” Florida law defines child abuse as the “intentional infliction of physical or mental injury upon a child.” The law does not forbid beatings that inflict bruises or welts. It forbids beatings that inflict “significant bruises or welts,” a level of pain the law ranks with permanent or temporary disfigurement, asphyxiation, suffocation, brain or spinal cord damage, bone or skull fractures, and so on. Beating a defenseless child less violently is legal.
Abuse Hotline: Report Abuse Online
The Florida Abuse Hotline accepts reports 24 hours a day and 7 days a week of known or suspected child abuse, neglect, or abandonment and reports of known or suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Please use the links below to report a child or adult abuse.
If you suspect or know of a child or vulnerable adult in immediate danger, call 911.
Any person who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent, legal custodian, caregiver, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare is a mandatory reporter. § 39.201(1)(a), Florida Statutes.
To report an allegation in Spanish or Creole, please call 1-800-962-2873, for TTY use 711 or 1-800-955-8771. This toll free number is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with counselors waiting to assist you.
Joan says
This is barbaric behaviour. That two adults responsible for the welfare of this child would work together to terrorize and brutalize this child is sickening. And a teacher no less! My, God!! If this level of violence can be justified by anyone, maybe annihilation of the species is in order.
flatsflyer says
She is employed by a local school system, why does she get a taxpayer Paid public defender? Did we also get stuck with her bail bond?
Mary Fusco says
This is absolutely horrific. Just the part of the story about them being in church about says it all. Just because one goes to church does not make them a saint as many would like to believe. Any woman who would allow a man to hold her child down so she could beat him is beyond inhuman. I hope she gets what is coming to her and more.
Alonzo says
According to the story, the story dad held the child down. He didn’t go to jail, don’t understand A child misbehaving in church, you don’t let him go to the bathroom. He pee in his clothes and he gets punished. Children act up and they have to relieve themselves just like the parents. Why punish the child that way, there are other ways to punish children keeping him from the bathroom is not 9ne of them. In case she didn’t know, peeing is a natural process from God. That is one of the ways the body rids waste water.
``Ben Dover says
My mother whooped the shit out of me with a belt , she also had a wooded paddle with holes drilled in it to prevent wind resistance , I got whipped with a wire hanger , lol it was a surprise attack because I jumped in some guys pool and got it all muddied up , was naked and all I could do was cover my junk up and take that whipping , I told her I was pushed into brook ,a friend ratted me out , point is I deserved most of the whooping I got , I got them from the nuns in Catholic School and from Mom at home , Dad didn`t have the heart to punish me or brothers and sisters , I grew up to respect my elders , and we never ever had school shootings , parents were not arrested for disciplining their kids , kids were not arrested for getting into fights at school ,cops only arrested bad people back then….. none of this bullshit they arrest people for now ,greed is why they arrest people these days…… pure and simple greed .
Adyson says
That’s my science teacher bro that is very scary
Wow says
This is how you raise a Markeith Loyd. In 20 years we will be wondering how someone ended up a murderer.
As for “Ben Dover” the argument – I suffered so you should too – is ridiculous.
Ellen says
She is a school teacher, I hope today a unemployed school teacher. And I want to hear the father another low life gets charged also since he held the child down. Just think of that childs life in that home with two losers as parents. Get that child out of the house for his own safety and lock the parents up in jail where they belong.
Mark says
Step-Dad doesn’t get charged for holding a child down while said child gets beat by Mother? Something wrong with that.
Kathryn says
I was 100% sure there would be a comment like this in here. “I was beaten as a child and it made me a good person”. Did you read the part about how the child was punished for needing to URINATE? Or how the mother was altering his medications? How the child was held down and beaten until he started bleeding? Sick and tired of people making excuses for child abusers. Come to terms with what you went through before you start punching down at actual children.
Helpusall says
A child laughs at a slap on the wrist, so the “mother” escalates the punishment to a bloody beating? while the “father” holds the child down? My heart breaks daily as I read these stories. I look over at my son and I cannot imagine wanting to hurt him as opposed to teaching him right from wrong. Not that peeing himself after not being allowed to use the bathroom would be wrong!!!? What is so difficult about compassion and a change of clothing? How about an apology to the child that you didn’t understand he had to go that bad and go on about the rest of your day? WTF? I don’t understand where the sickness creeps in. and A SCHOOLTEACHER!? not for my child, no thank you.
ASF says
Perhaps that poor child does not even have ADHD. Maybe he is just reacting behaviorally to the abuse he is subjected to at home. Somebody should be looking into that.
Dagmar Bosch says
I was also one of those children that was abused regular beatings, sexual abuse, and mental abuse! It all started one year after my adoption was final 5years of torture. But back when this happened 1957-1963 there was no one to rescue me. This poor child I pray his mental scares don’t last a life time like mine have!
Tony says
This story brought back horrible memories of my mom punishing me for wetting the bed. She’d make me strip completely naked and make me lay on my bed with my legs spread apart. Then she’d whip my bare penis with a belt, super hard, until I thought I would die. It was horrible, and to this day I don’t have anything to do with my mother. This abuse went on for many years.
FlaglerLive says
In case anyone doubts the commenter’s story, it’s worth noting that no less an eminence than George Orwell was beaten for his bed-wetting in school, when he was 8, before society wisened up: “In those days,” he wrote, “it was looked on as a disgusting crime which the child committed on purpose and for which the proper cure was a beating.” The beatings were intentionally sadistic, and turned over not to administrators of the school, but to older boys, who could always be more cruel. The account begins his great essay about his miserable boarding school experiences, “Such, Such Were the Joys.”
Disgusted says
Disgusting ! He owns Palm Coast Gutter ..Seems he in the gutter look at his arrests prior .Not a compliment to our community either of them
Concerned Citizen says
Abusers are the same all over. They most often pick on those who can’t protect themselves. It makes them feel powerful and strong. Makes them thump their chest and say look at me. It makes me sick to my stomach reading about these cases. Having worked in Law Enforcement for many years child abuse cases were some of the hardest.
I am not understanding why the father isn’t being charged as well. He was at the least an accessory.
To both parents involved.
While I’m not a violent person this type of behavior is disgusting. I invite you both to try it on myself. Or another adult. I promise you will not enjoy the same outcome. Nor will you enjoy the reaction after you attempt to put hands on myself.
Jackson says
The weird thing is I had “mis [P.H.]” as a teacher in 5th grade she always was the mean strict teacher and if her kid did so much as talk to loud he would get his toys and other things taken away. This breaks my heart because that kid was like a little brother to me.