EL PASO, Texas – A Texas mom who won the hearts of people across the state when she spanked her 14-year-old son on the side of the road for taking her BMW without permission is speaking out.
Initially wanting to maintain a low profile amid allegations of child abuse, Liza Martinez told El Paso TV station KFOX that she disciplined her son, Aaron, out of a sense of obligation she feels as a mother.
Rip to my brother 😂 pic.twitter.com/Q15pT2Sx06
— Lizaconda♛ (@LilaaBites) October 12, 2018
"I feel that I have a debt to society, and my debt to society is to make sure my children are productive, law-abiding citizens," Martinez told KFOX.
Martinez was captured on camera tracking her son down after he took her BMW for a joyride with friends and spanking him with a belt on the side of an El Paso road.
She said in that moment, she was thinking of the danger in which her son had put himself, his friends and others who were on the road.
Martinez's daughter, Liza Campero, joined her mom in tracking Aaron down and chronicled the incident in short videos she posted to Twitter.
In one video, Martinez can be heard asking her daughter for the belt before getting out of the car, opening the driver's side door of the BMW and spanking her son with the leather belt.
Aaron's friend, who was in the passenger's seat, told Campero he was trying to get out of the car to run home because he was in shock.
Martinez took away Aaron's phone, Playstation 4 and other electronic devices, so he had no clue the videos Campero posted had gone viral.
Initially worried he would be bullied because he was spanked by his mother, the 14-year-old has received mostly positive attention. Campero said Aaron's classmates have called him a "legend," referring to him as the modern-day Ferris Bueller.