Medieval cosplayers hit teen daughter with tree branches, force her to wear armor, fight stepfather

KING-5, a local news station in Seattle, Washington reports that a couple who also happen to be very much into RenFaire-style cosplay forced their daughter to fight the stepdad in a medieval-style duel as a form of punishment.

Investigators arrested the 16-year-old girl's stepfather, Fremon Seay, and her mother, Julie Seay, this weekend. According to police, the teen was forced her to dress in armor and fight Fremon Seay with a wooden sword for two hours. Police also said Seay punched and beat his stepdaughter with a tree branch prior to the duel. Investigators said she collapsed from exhaustion. The couple told officers they punished the teen for going to a party without their permission. Investigators learned the couple is part of a group of Renaissance enthusiasts, who recreate fights from the medieval era. Officers said the parents told them it was their right to discipline their child however they see fit.

Photo, KING-TV: Fremon Seay talks to officials.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Baldhead

Leeches weren’t a punishment. Of course they were a legit treatment for anger issues among other things.
Justin Wright

Actually, the girl had been arrested at a crack house. The punishment for that should be a sword duel in the front yard against your dad.

Nothing wrong here…move along.
bcsizemo

Leaches… I think lashes with a cat of nine tails would be more appropriate.

Of course my favorite medieval torture device was the pear of anguish, but that might be a bit much for this.
jimh

At age sixteen, I would have relished the opportunity to smite my stepfather.
scifijazznik

What’s his boingboing handle?
http://twitter.com/kimtif Kim Fritts

there is a difference between renaissance and medieval
- http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43
  
  Yes, but there may possibly be evidence that there were Renaissance folk who so missed the joys of the Middle Ages that they recreated Medieval fights for “Olde Tyme’s” sake.
  
  Please, try to keep an open mind.
Martin Yu

Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! (one for each parent)
InsertFingerHere

c’mon super salve and battle armour …..

“Sir, put down the 10-sided dice and come out with your hands up…”
demidan

I’d love to “play” with the father a while just let me get my CotT ,(SCA Combat of the Thirty) kit on, after I get tired I bet Sir Vitus would like a crack at him as well.
- Stooge
  
  You are just parodying the style of a psychopath, right?
  - demidan
    
    Psychopath? We use rattan weapons which while can be painful are almost never lethal, and I think I would be a more even or “fair” fight for that lout. You. Don’t. Hit Women and Children. (Unless they are authorized and willing).
    - demidan
      
      And Children are NEVER authorized to fight adults.
    - Guest
      
      ‘Women and Children’ are still lumped together for you, huh… and capitalized, for some reason. what century is this, again? Boing Boing has become swarmed with Neanderthals, and it is played out. ‘Wonderful things’, indeed.
      - Donald Petersen
        
        Well, for what it’s worth, Neanderthals eschew capitalization.
- Rich Keller
  
  The real world authorities will take care of this. Vitus will weigh in on this if he so chooses. You aren’t doing the community any good with your comment. All you’re doing is adding duct tape to an already sticky situation.
  
  Hieronymus van Gent, Kingdom of Northshield, Order of the Pyxis, Order of Brigid’s Flame
  - demidan
    
    Fair enough, I apologize for my rash words.
Mitchell Glaser

Blowtorch and pliers time!
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

“Officers said the parents told them it was their right to discipline their child however they see fit.”

“But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property.” — Charles James Napier
Mister44

re: ” Renaissance enthusiasts, who recreate fights from the medieval era.”

Of course those are two different time in history. Anyway, they are posers. REAL enthusiasts would have an authentic stock put in the middle of the town square or maybe in the basement next to the Warhammer battle ground. No screws!
RJ

FACT: The Renaissance Period ranged from the 14th to 17th centuries.

FACT: The volley gun was invented in the 15th century, well within the Renaissance Period.

SOLUTION: we hold another duel and let the girl use a Renaissance-style volley gun this time. You know, to even the ol’ playing field a bit. Fat boy can keep his wooden sword. Or, hell, let him have a real one. It won’t matter.
- demidan
  
  What about the Irish Renaissance that began in the 12th Century?
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MLAKC2J76NFB64XLSLUKEHF4J4 Daniel
    
    Italian renaissance arguably began as early as the eleventh century, and was certainly going by the thirteenth. There is no one period that can be called “the Renaissance.” There was a period of time starting with the first or second crusade in which a lot of Greek and Roman learning were recovered by Europeans through contact with Muslim-dominated cities. This “new learning” was concentrated in the southern Mediterranean regions of Europe and then gradually spread northward.
    
    The medieval period segues into the Renaissance, there is no line in the sand dividing them. They were still jousting and marrying cousins in Germany when the Italian duchies started experimenting with reserve banking and funding the likes of Leonardo da Vinci.
Festus

REET! REET! Scary! Now we know why S. M. Stirling made the antihero of his “Dies the Fire” series a frustrated RenFaire/Society for Creativie Anachronism guy from Portland…
ookluh

“Officers said the parents told them it was their right to discipline their child however they see fit.”

And hopefully they were promptly told that is psychotic thinking and the road to ending their dumb asses in jail and their daughter in a lifetime of counseling.
ComradeQuestions

“A water-dancer never collapses from exhaustion.”
wizardru

Hey, let’s do a quick exercise. Let’s say we have two abusive parents dealing with a difficult teenager. Now, let’s assume that their lifestyle is the source of their poor parenting choices. Do we pick the flashy lifestyle choice that we can use to point and say ‘hey, we’re better than those freaks’ or the one that makes our viewers uncomfortable?

Hmmm, let’s see: ”After the girl came in from her beating, her parents allegedly made her strip down to her underwear and then watch a “Sunday sermon” on TV by an unknown preacher.”

Yeah, let’s go with the Dungeons and Dragons, stuff.
- wizardru
  
  The source article with more examples of their poor choices. Another article indicates that the step-father believed she was not at a party, but a crack-house. Whether this actually is the case or not has not been established. Varying accounts report her sending text messages to the police while another account indicates a friend called them (which may both be true, since details are vague).
  
  http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/10/fremon_seay_yelm_renaissance_d.php
Muneraven

When you choose how to discipline your child based on how entertaining it will be FOR YOU, that is kind of the definition of being a sick %&$^@. And if I was that girl, I’d have issues, too.
mtreighie

Demidan should have said you never hit anyone who is not authorized (or in the process of authorizing). Society Wide (that would be Society for Creative Anachronism) there is no restriction on authorization for combat based on sex. I don’t know for sure what the combat rules are for his kingdom or for the local chapter in Seattle, but here in southern California (Kingdom of Caid) Heavy combat tournament authorization can happen as young as 16 for male or female fighters.
There is a slight possibility that the young lady is an authorized fighter, but seeing heavy combat forms used as punishment shows that whatever your fun pass-time may be, some asshole out there will turn it into a way to abuse his kids.
adonai

Too far. If he just wanted to punish her, he should have erected a gibbet instead, like a mediæval naughty room. /s