Corporal Punishment

Introduction

The debate over whether parents should discipline their children using corporal punishment is certainly a contentious one. But perhaps an even more bitter debate centers around corporal punishment in public schools. Should teachers and administrators in U.S. public schools be allowed to punish their students by spanking them when they break the rules? In 1867, New Jersey became the first state to ban corporal punishment in its public schools. For more than 100 years, after that it was the only state in which the practice was illegal. But since Massachusetts bannedcorporal punishment in 1971, 26 additional states as well as Washington, D.C., have banned corporalpunishment in public schools. This paper discusses corporal punishment and whether it is fair to the kids or not.

Discussion

As of December 2006, corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 22 states. In those states, individual school districts are permitted to decide whether they want to use corporal punishment. Indeed, many districts, particularly in urban areas, choose to prohibit their teachers and administrators from using corporalpunishment on students. Additionally, Utah allows corporal punishment, but only if parents give written consent for its use. Similarly, Ohio parents can refuse to allow their children to be paddled at school. (Mark 148-60)

Rural school districts, however, commonly permit the use of corporal punishment. According to statistics provided by the Education Department, more than 300,000 children were subjected to corporal punishment in the 2002-03 school year, the last year for which data are available. Nearly 90% of those children attended rural schools in just eight different states, all of which are located in the South or Midwest regions of the U.S. (Gretel 12)

Most corporal punishment in public schools is carried out using thick wooden paddles; sometimes holes are drilled into the paddles to make the blows more painful. Children who misbehave are often taken into a private room, supervised by two or more school employees, where the paddling is administered. The number of blows delivered generally ranges from one to three, depending on the severity of the student's misdeed. In some schools, however, paddlings are delivered by teachers, in full view of the class. In one elementary school in Zwolle, La., teachers are equipped with a paddle nine inches long and three inches wide that the students themselves make in wood shop class. (Sureshrani 410-13)

Although it has been used to discipline unruly students since colonial times, corporal punishment has lost favor among U.S. educators over the past two decades. Since the late 1970s, more than two dozen states have banned corporal punishment in their public schools, and many school boards in other states have banned the practice in their districts as well. Analysts, however, are divided on the reasons for educators' move away from corporal punishment, and they disagree on whether the trend is ultimately harming or benefiting students. (Dave 10-11)

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of teachers' use of corporal punishment, regardless of thepunishment's severity, in the 1977 case Ingraham v. Wright. That decision remains ...