Anand Louis, 33, and Nandhini Devi, 32, of Ashwaubenon, Wisc. burned their seven-year-old’s son with a hot spoon as punishment because his school called his parents to report he was misbehaving at school.

The boy told police his mother heated a large metal spoon in the oven about 10 minutes and pressed it on his leg for five seconds. He had tried to get away but his father was holding onto him too tightly. He also said he was struck with a wooden comb.

A school nurse found the quarter-sized open wound on the boy’s right leg, and police and social workers were called in. Louis and Dev were charged with physical abuse of a child, carrying up to six years in prison. They have been released on $20,000 signature bonds. Their two sons are in foster care.

Louis and his family are in the U.S. from India on a valid work visa. I had a feeling the parents might use a “I’m just an ignorant foreigner” defense, and claim that punishing a child this way was a normal Indian practice. But when Louis repeatedly told police he would not do it again, and begged them not to put him in jail? I knew burning kids with a hot spoon was as wrong in India as it is in Wisconsin.

Folks, this is America, not Abu Ghraib. Stop torturing your kids.