School Report Leads To Arrest Of Girl’s Father Accused Of Beating her with Tongs

Christopher R. Kleiner, a 30-year-old resident of Secretary Trail in Palm Coast, was arrested Friday on a felony child abuse charge after the child’s school reported an allegation of abuse to the Department of Children and Families and Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies investigated. The school is for pre-K children up to the fifth grade. 

The child told authorities that she was playing on her Nintendo Switch 2 the morning of April 2 after it had been confiscated, and continued playing after Kleiner told her to put it away. She said her father then took the device and punished her. She reported to authorities that he allegedly “struck her with his open hand on her lower back and upper buttocks, then struck her multiple times with metal tongs that had red rubber-coated tips,” according to Kleiner’s arrest report. 

The girl cried and told him to stop, as did Kleiner’s wife, who told her husband he was being too angry or emotional. Kleiner, however, “continued to strike” the girl, who said he disciplines her often. “Her demeanor and statements indicated physical punishment appears to be normalized for her rather than an isolated incident,” the arrest report states. 

As of last year, 70 countries have enacted laws prohibiting corporal punishment of children in any form anywhere, including at home, by anyone, parents included. The United States is not among them: all 50 states still allow corporal punishment at home, though 32 states have banned it in schools. All Southern states, including Florida, still allow it. The physical punishment must be “reasonable” and “does not result in harm to the child.”

Kleiner’s daughter “had large visible bruising, welts, and patterned marks consistent with being struck by an object on her left inner thigh, as well as similar injuries on the lateral portion of her right thigh,” according to the sheriff’s report. 

Kleiner told Miriam Polly, a Child Protective Investigator with DCF, that after his daughter continued to play on the device after he told her to get ready for school, he took the device, attempted to spank her, but “claimed he accidentally struck the backs of her thighs with an open hand,” the report states. “He denied using any utensil or object during this incident but admitted he has used a spatula in the past for discipline.” The investigator told him his explanation was inconsistent with the evidence of injury. Kleiner then “appeared evasive, omitted details, and stated he was disciplined with a belt as a child and was disciplining [his daughter] in the same manner.”

The DCF investigator located the wooden spoon and metal tongs with red rubber tips. Kleiner’s wife also spoke with the investigator but appeared to be withholding information to protect her husband, then requested an attorney, ending the interview. The Child Protection Team attempted to evaluate the child, and both parents and the child went to Daytona Beach to that end. Once there, Kleiner’s wife declined to have her child evaluated. 

A sheriff’s deputy tried to speak with Kleiner’s wife at the Secretary Trail house. She “became argumentative and uncooperative when asked if she would speak with me, asking whether I had a ‘warrant or court order,’” the deputy reported. Kleiner was also uncooperative, the deputy reported. 

DCF had attempted to implement an emergency care plan to remove Kleiner from the house, but he and his wife did not cooperate, the report states. Shortly after 7 p.m. on Friday, Kleiner was arrested on the child abuse charge, a third degree felony. He posted bail on $3,500 bond the next day and was released, though a judge signed a no-contact order with his daughter, pending the disposition of the case.