Schools Under Pressure to Spare the Rod Forever

[alp227]

When Tyler Anastopoulos got in trouble for skipping detention at his high school recently, he received the same punishment that students in parts of rural Texas have been getting for generations.

Tyler, an 11th grader from Wichita Falls, was sent to the assistant principal and given three swift swats to the backside with a paddle, recalled Angie Herring, his mother. The blows were so severe they caused deep bruises and the boy wound up in the hospital, Ms. Herring said.

While the image of the high school principal patrolling the halls with paddle in hand is largely of the past, corporal punishment is still alive in 20 states, according to the Center for Effective Discipline, a group that tracks its use in schools around the country and advocates for its end. Most of those states are in the South, where paddling remains engrained in the social and family fabric of some communities.

Each year, prodded by child safety advocates, state legislatures debate whether corporal punishment amounts to an archaic form of child abuse or an effective means of discipline.

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/education/30paddle.html

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. What happened in the aforementioned example

is the best illustration of why corporal punishment, particularly in schools (esp. Texas schools), is a BAD idea.

[SheilaT]

2. Here in New Mexico we're debating

eliminating corporal punishment in schools. I'm utterly astonished that 11 years into the 21st century this is an issue. I had honestly thought it had been eliminated 20 or 30 years ago, maybe more.

All I know is that this is assault, pure and simple, and should not be protected behavior.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Every student should file assault charges every time it happens

Another interesting approach would be to exercise the right to self defense written into the Texas constitution by disarming him.

In MD after a school fracas, a parent was in the process of filing conspiracy after the fact charges against a middle school principal when the district superintendent personally went to the Sheriff's station to talk them out of it. The principal had other problems as well and was not in the district the following year.