Texas Leads Country In School Paddling

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Texas Leads Country In School Paddling Nearly a quarter of a million students nationwide received corporal punishment during the 2006-2007 school year and more than a quarter of them were in Texas, according to a report released Wednesday that finds minority students got a disproportionate share of the punishment.

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(August 20, 2008)—Nationwide, 223,190 students received corporal punishment during the 2006-2007 school year, and 49,197 of them were in Texas, according to a study released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.

Texas leads the U.S. in the use of corporal punishment, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri, the study says.

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The study also found that blacks, American Indians and children with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment.

The study used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists.

Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, states that account for 40 percent of the 223,190 children who were paddled at least once during the 2006-2007 school year.

"Minority students in public schools already face barriers to success," said Alice Farmer, Aryeh Neier Fellow at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU, and author of the report..

"By exposing these children to disproportionate rates of corporal punishment, schools create a hostile environment in which these students may struggle even more."

Even younger children can be paddled.

Heather Porter of Crockett, Texas, was startled to hear her little boy, then age 3, say he'd been spanked at school.

Porter was never told, despite a policy at the public preschool that parents be notified.

Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.

Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.

"Every public school needs effective methods of discipline, but beating kids teaches violence and it doesn't stop bad behavior," Farmer said.

"Corporal punishment discourages learning, fails to deter future misbehavior and at times even provokes it,” she said.

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Latest Comments

Posted by: Robina Location: Fort Worth on Feb 5, 2009 at 10:00 AM

Where I went to high school (class 2004) in a large suburban district, students were given the choice between detention and a paddling for most minir things like tardies. Most took the paddling and it worked well. I think as long as it is a choice and not manditory, there is no real problem. I was paddled twice, once in 10th grade and once in 12th, and I think this kept me out of more trouble. I think just hearing a student getting paddled in the hall is a big deterrent to other students. I remember one girls' PE coach who was so feared that she only had to use the paddle once a week or so to keep everyone in line. We would listen and think: "Thank God its her and not me getting it!"
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Posted by: catriona Location: australia on Sep 13, 2008 at 07:49 PM

I live in Australia where corporal punishment in schools is BANNED and has been since 1983 (a quarter century ago) I was shocked to find that some US states still allow it. I am also STRONGLY against spanking or ANY kind of child physical "discipline" at all ever. As a child I was spanked with a wooden spoon and a hairbrush often in anger and it has left me fearful and anxious as well as angry. You cannot spank your wife or husband because they do something you dont like and children deserve MORE protection not less. Spanking just leads to worse behaviour. Kids need to be given time out or have their privileges taken away or in school get detenttions etc.This is not the 1950s people should get over their old fashioned views. I hate when i see kids be yelled at, belitted or hit by their parents. Spanking and chastising is seen as wrong here although not illegal for parents yet. It is banned in 25 countries and growing each year across the world and to me that is a great thing.
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Posted by: Jeff Location: Charles on Sep 3, 2008 at 07:51 AM

I host a website, www.nopaddle.com, about school paddling as physical abuse, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment. Across the US I've noticed that the vast majority of letters to the editor about how "out of control kids are these days" and need to be paddled "like in the old days" are written in the highest paddling locales. If paddling at high rates is doing any good, it doesn't seem to be noticed by letter writers and bloggers. The best schools in the US and Texas don't need this type of quackery. No-one does actually. Paddling is supported by many lies and myths that are easily debunked. Paddling is often said, for example, to be a "time honored tradition," to be a "Christian duty," and to help keep kids out of prison. Few paddle supporters, however, are aware that school paddling actually originated in slavery, that the New Testament never once instructs anyone to hit anyone, or that prison rates are generally higher in paddling states than in nonpaddling.
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