Dan Jackson

Melissa Farrell has been charged with injury to a child for allegedly spanking her child too hard while attending a Fourth of July parade in Coeur d'Alene.

The north Idaho woman charged with injury to a child for spanking her toddler pleaded not guilty in court Wednesday. 

Melissa Farrell said she was punishing her two-year-old daughter for misbehaving at the Coeur d’Alene Fourth of July parade.

Eight onlookers were so outraged by the spanking they signed written statements, saying Farrell was injuring the little girl.

Farrell and her husband told our affiliate KREM TV in Spokane that a judge offered to drop the charges if the couple took parenting classes.