Corporal punishment in schools Part I

As bizarre as it seems sometimes, corporal punishment is still legal in public schools in nearly half of US States (19 states as of 2006). Really? Why? I must confess that spanking, paddling, and corporal punishment in a school discipline context have never made much sense to me (then again, I don’t feel they make any more sense in the parenting sphere either, but that’s MY opinion, such as it is).

Whether you are in favor of spanking your own children, or not, is one thing, but spanking other people’s children just invites controversy. For example, two parents Texas complained that their daughters had been paddled by male faculty hard enough to leave welts and bruises. This sort of thing just INVITES lawsuits because let’s face it, it’s creepy. What’s NOT creepy about an adult male paddling pubescent females hard enough to leave marks? Aside from meeting the textbook definition of child abuse (as it’s defined in a number of states), it comes eerily close to assault/sexual assault territory. As a school district, I would NOT want to have my faculty going THERE. It blows my mind that in many states, this kind of bizarreness is allowed to continue.

It’s hard to imagine a convincing rationale for using corporal punishment in a public school setting, especially when you are working with adolescents (as opposed to small children). It just doesn’t make any sense logically, given that there are numerous other options for meeting your disciplinary objectives, all of which, would presumably be more effective (and less harmful) than spanking.

For some reason, though, 19 states still allow it. We’ll assume that in these 19 states, that not all schools choose to use it, but it’s a legal option for those who wish to do so. Let’s explore the topic a bit more then in part two.