Why doesn't the President ban corporal punishment in schools?

[stopschoolpaddling]

Read my letter to the editor published in our local newspaper this month.
Dear Editor,
I became concerned with corporal punishment (CP) in the Marshall County school district (MCSD) after my son in his first week of Kindergarten this year came home and told me that his teacher was scaring him and he didn’t want to go to school anymore. Upon questioning, he then told me his teacher screamed all the time and had showed his class a large wooden paddle and explained that it could be used on children who didn’t behave. She then kept the paddle in full view of the children on her desk. Outraged at how she was trying to control her classroom by intimidation and the fear of punishment, I tried to address the issue with school officials. Since they stated they were in complete support of this type of teacher behavior and became defensive and outright hostile in my questioning their disciplinary tactics, I decided to investigate. Here is what I found.
According to records on the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) website, during the 2007/2008 school year, there were a total of 394 reported incidences of CP in all Searcy County schools. That same year neighboring Stone County reported 125. It should be noted that Stone County had just 46 less students that year then Searcy County did. On this same document under the heading of “other discipline” Stone County reported 542 and Searcy County reported 6. Well, due to the huge differences between the two counties, my investigation continued. First, I ranked each of the 75 counties in Arkansas by dividing the reported numbers of CP incidences with the number of enrolled students. What I found was according to records from the ADE website, Searcy County came in 8th and Stone county came in 29th per capita with #1 being the county that used it the most.
I then requested the CP records from the MCSD. True to form, they completely ignored my request until I was advised by ADE to send them a certified letter quoting my freedom of information.
What I received were the CP records broken down into years and the 3 schools that comprise MCSD. According to their own records, in this school district alone that only consists of a little over half of all students in Searcy County there were 616 incidences of corporal punishment in 2007/2008. But what of the figure on the ADE website that reports 394 as a combined number of all the schools in Searcy county? Was it an oversight on behalf of the people who combined the data? Or did they intentionally not report their actual numbers? (I am in the process of investigating this with ADE) If I rate MCSD like I did counties and divide the number of CP incidences by the number of students they will claim 1st place in all of Arkansas in the race to hit as many children as they possibly can.
I leave you with these questions. Is CP being used as a last resort or first? Are the children of Searcy County more than 5 times more likely to misbehave to the point of warranting CP than the children of Stone County? Why at Leslie Elementary during the 2006/2007 school year were there 18 reported CP incidents and then during 2007/2008 it jumps to 69 and 61 in 2008/2009? What the hell happened? Did a busload of juvenile delinquents suddenly move to the area all at once or maybe a planetary cosmic shift affecting this county alone could explain it? Or maybe, a new principle that started in 2006 took it easy the first year while she got her bearings and the next year when she felt acclimated went on a CP rampage to satisfy her need for power by punishing as many children as possible? At Marshall Elementary, the reported number of CP incidents went from 105 in 2006/2007 and 96 in 2007/2008 to a whopping 168 in 2008/2009. Guess what? A new principle was hired that year. So what is it that’s causing Searcy County Schools to have such high CP incidences, more misbehavior from children or a preference by principles to solve behavioral problems through force? Just so you know, Marshall High School has had the same principle since 1995 and their CP numbers don’t change much from year to year. I hope the fact that there are consistently more CP incidents per year than there are students at this school doesn’t alarm anyone. Just for fun, you might ask any student who’s gotten it from him whether he seems to enjoy it.
If anyone would like to see the report that I’m getting my information from just email me and I’ll be more than happy to forward it to you. As for corporal punishment in this area, I’m done with it. My children now attend in Stone County where they have a better record. I just felt obligated to the children who are stuck there to make this information public.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
[e-mail]

P.S. In response to the two writers who claim that CP is having a positive effect on the number of children who will wind up in jail, please go to the public records section of the November 11th issue of this newspaper and read the petition by the sheriff’s office to raise criminal fines to offset the cost of the rising number of incarcerations in Searcy County. Keep up the good work, folks, and don’t worry about the fact that the high school drop out rate so far this year at Marshall High is only .3 away from double the median average. Not to worry, I’m sure you will reach your goal in turning as many children as you can off on education.

[JuniperLea]

1. I remember CP when I went to school in California during the 70's...

But when my kids went to California schools in the 90's, there was no such thing. I cannot believe this is still going on!

[Xithras]

6. CP was banned in California schools in 1980 IIRC.

It might have been 1981. I was in first or second grade at the time, and just remember that my old principal Mr. Williams kept a paddle behind his desk that looked like a boat oar with holes drilled into it. On his office floor there was a series of lines painted on the floor with various heights written next to them. When it was paddling time, you put your toe on the line, grabbed the edge of his desk, and he went at it.

Then, one day, the paddle and lines were gone. When we asked about it, we just got a vague "We can't do that anymore".

Of course, my public school was run by sadists who simply came up with other ways of punishing kids. Instead of paddling, we were put into isolation rooms...little 3 foot by 3 foot rooms with nothing but a tiny bench to sit on, lit only by a super dim bulb. You were given a single yellow card when you were put in there, and were told to slip it under the door when you needed to use your one allowable trip to the bathroom. Kids could be left in there for hours and, I can tell you from experience, were rarely if ever checked on. It was a tiny, dark wooden prison designed to isolate and terrify small children. It's my understanding that they used the isolation rooms until some time in the late 80's or early 90's, when some parent finally sued them over it.

[JuniperLea]

8. That's disgusting!

I remember hearing stories from school chums, but I never got the swat myself... not sure how I got away with that!

That's just cruel. I would have sued too! Despicable!

[Xithras]

9. The schools perspective and claim was...

...that the isolation rooms were no more damaging than being forced to stand in a corner. Safer, actually, because the kid didn't actually have to stand, and that it reduced teasing from other kids by preventing anyone else from seeing them punished. Instead, in a brilliant leap of logic, they said that it would be BETTER to lock the kids in tiny, dark rooms smaller than most household closets for hours at a time, with nothing to read or do, with only a hard wood bench to sit on and just enough open floorspace to stand and stretch now and then.

I was never locked in one for hours, but I had "lunch lockup" several times as a kid. Instead of going out to eat and play at lunchtime, I had to report to the office with my lunch in tow. I'd be locked in the little room to eat my lunch until lunchtime was over, at which time I'd be sent back to class.

Even spending 45 minutes in one could be scary.

[NoNothing]

2. Because this is not a federal issue

The President can't micromanage every school board.

[Deep13]

3. Bing! Bing! Bing! We have a winnah!

That's a matter for the state legislature.

[LiberalFighter]

4. Well Congress could have some play in it.

But the President can't issue an EO for something like this.

[Xithras]

7. Even Congress couldn't really "ban" it.

Their power is limited to pulling federal funding from school districts that won't comply. Depending on the districts dependence on federal funds, that may or may not be a serious threat.

[CoffeeCat]

5. It is disgusting that this is happening!!

The American Academy of Pediatrics, long ago, came out against spanking children. Why oh why is this
allowed in our schools?

Parents should be the ones to decide if their child is physically abused and HIT...not some awful teacher
who has to use fear, intimidation, threats and physical abuse to run a classroom.

This really is a tragedy. I live in a state that does not allow CP. I can't imagine living in a state
that did. It is so awful. It's lazy discipline, is what it is.

And 168 incidents of CP a school year. That means that a child was hit about every other day. That means
that CP is this school's main form of punishment. Children are often very poor communicators. They
don't always speak up and stand up for themselves. My child was accused of kicking a student during PE, when
they were in the middle of a soccer game. She was sent to the principal's office, but she was too scared to
stick up for herself and tell him that she didn't mean to kick her--it was just part of the game. She
was very harshly reprimanded.

The fact that this happens EVERY OTHER DAY in the school that you mention, is alarming.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Well, I live in Arkansas too. Been here since 1992 and I truly believe that this state is about

50 years behind the other 49 on many issues. Corporal punishment is approved by the majority (75 to 22%) of parents according to several reports I've read and Arkansas leads the nation in sheer numbers of paddlings.

http://www.uark.edu/ua/oep/OpEds/2007_ArkansasPaddling.pdf
http://arkansasmatters.com/content/poll/?poll_id=901

[stopschoolpaddling]

12. Yes, you are right!!!

If you try to bring up the subject of corporal punishment with parents in this area they will tell you that they are all for it. Not only that but if their child ever gets paddled in school, you can believe they will get it 10 times more and worse when they get home. One parent I talked to said the principle wasn't going to paddle her daughter but she insisted. Then right there at the school, " I paddled her and then her father did." When she got home, she got it again. That will teach her to respect her elders. (At 8 years old this child weighs over 100 lbs. I would bet money she will be pregnant before she turns 14)
Needless to say, I don't allow my daughter to play with her anymore.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Because it's a state issue

Do you really want the president dictating to states?

Have you read the constitution lately?