Merritt Smith's Case Study

Merritt Smith's four-year-old daughter was hit by a boy at school. The boy hit her so hard that it broke her skin. Merritt decided to take her daughter to the hospital. When Merritt checked her daughter into the hospital, the receptionist told the girl that the reason the boy hit her was because he liked her. Merritt was disgusted by the comments. She could not believe that the receptionist, who is a man, would say something like that.

Merritt does not want her daughter growing up thinking that hitting is a part of a healthy relationship. She wrote about the experience on her Facebook page. In the post, she talked about how comments like the one made by the receptionist can cause girls to end up in abusive relationships later in life. Many