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26 states in the U.S. still allow spanking and other forms of corporal punishment in public schools.
I have only a vague memory of something my sister remembers very clearly from my childhood. She tells me that each of my elementary school years my mother walked into the principal’s office at the start of the school year and left a paddle with my name on it with permission for it to be used on me if needed.
The paddle was one of those toy ones with the ball and string removed. How humiliating for me! Yet, did her action send up any possible red flags about what a terribly abusive mother she was to me? How could it when the school itself approved corporal punishment itself?
Nobody every hit me in school that I remember, though my sister remembers having a teacher that would whack student hands if they missed a multiplication problem presented orally in a class quiz format. My brother had a teacher in school that hit him, and ironically my mother blew a gasket over this!
Two of my Texas nieces are no longer being home schooled and have found upon entering public school that spankings in the principal’s office are a very real threat of terror in their new world.
I would add in relation to the article below that many children who have been neglected, maltreated and abused OFTEN act out in school — myself included evidently. When those children are not shown another way of interacting socially, aren’t the already existing abuse patterns of violence in their lives being reproduced and reinforced in the only other major arena of functioning young children have in their lives — their school zone?
What do you think of spanking in American schools?
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By Sue Shellenbarger
- September 1, 2009, 9:18 AM ET
Spanking Kids in School Still Common, Especially Among Disabled
Spanking kids in school has gone the way of the buggy whip – right?
Wrong, based on a new study by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, as reported here and here. More than 200,000 U.S. schoolchildren were subjected to corporal punishment during the 2006-2007 school year, the study shows. And the South has a big lead in whacking schoolkids, with Texas, Mississippi and Alabama holding the top three spots.
Paddlings in school are still legal in 20 states, and the report suggests they are quite common, based on 202 interviews with parents, teachers, students and school officials, plus federal Education Department data. The courts haven’t afforded students in classrooms the same protection as criminals have against cruel and unusual punishment.
Many pediatricians now advise against corporal punishment; some research suggests spanking makes behavior problems worse. And while I admit to having harbored now and then a fleeting wish that my kids’ teachers could smack fellow students whose behavior disrupted class, I never would seriously advocate such a thing.
In the saddest finding of the ACLU study, children with disabilities, especially autism, drew corporal punishment at a far higher rate than others, the study found. Children with autism were often punished for behaviors linked to the condition, because teachers lacked the knowledge, training or patience to use other methods of behavior control.
Stefanie has posted before on how this touchy topic plays out in different families. I have known parents who occasionally spank their children, whose kids seem well-adjusted; my own mom and dad, who I thought were great parents, used spanking occasionally. Nevertheless, I find the idea of routine corporal punishment at school pretty appalling.
Readers, are spanking and other forms of corporal punishment ever warranted in schools? Should local school officials be free, as they are now, to choose disciplinary methods, in keeping with the values of their own communities? Or do we need a nationwide ban on spanking in schools?
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Stop the Storm 