In Re Jasmin C.

This appeal raises a single question: May a juvenile court require a nonoffending parent in a Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 proceeding to attend a parenting class when there is no substantial evidence that either the parent or the minor would benefit from the counseling? We answer “no.”

Factual and Procedural History

On May 27, 2002, Benito N. (father) picked up his adult stepdaughter, 18-year-old Jessica C., from work. During the drive home, they began to argue about Jessica having a boyfriend, and the argument spilled over from the car into the family home. As matters escalated, Jessica’s mother, Maria J. (mother), took Jessica and mother’s three other children to a friend’s house. Father followed, an altercation ensued, and father punched Jessica in the face, breaking her nose. When 15-year-old Jasmin intervened to protect her sister, father hit Jasmin three times, once in the stomach, slapped her repeatedly and pulled her hair. He also pushed a five-year-old niece.

At some point during the fray, father said that if his wife and children did not leave with him, he would start shooting, or something “bad would happen.” Mother intervened, cooled tempers,…