School Spankings Still Allowed In 19 States

While punishing students by spanking them with paddles at school seems like a scene from Little House on the Prairie , it's still a reality for students in 19 states across the U.S., an NPR report reveals.

Whether it's a wooden paddle or fiberglass board, students in states like Florida endure the punishments on a daily basis, according to the Center for Effective Discipline.

"I been getting them since about first grade," Lucas Mixon, a junior at Holmes County High School in Bonifay, Fla, told NPR. "It's just regular. They tell you to put your hands up on the desk and how many swats you're going to get."

Cole Long, a senior at the school told NPR that one school official is particularly aggressive.

"The assistant principal, he hurts," Long says. "I've had it plenty of times from him and he gives it to us a little more."

Long said, however, that he doesn't think the policy should change -- saying it teaches students respect.

Last year Chris Petrasek, a 48-year-old teacher, faced charges of assault and battery after he spanked three students at Oakridge Middle School in Lake Wylie, S.C.

The students told the Associated Press they recieved the punishment for earning bad grades and talking out of turn.

The St. John's Military School in Salina, Kan., doesn't just permit corporal punishment for students, it employs upperclassmen to carry it out.

The punishments have allegedly spanned further than a paddle spanking, and the school now faces a lawsuit for claims that the students, or "Disciplinarians" bound, gagged, and urniated on the students they were punishing.

According to NPR, the most recent data on school spankings is from 2006, which show that 223,190 students endured coporal punishment -- 3,661 of them in Florida.

To see a list of states who allow corporal punishment in schools, click over to the Center for Effective Discipline's website.

Comments

[hoho5973]

01:32 PM on 03/25/2012

Only 19 states? It should be allowed in all states. A little discipline will go along way...............

[Sthernbull]

10:19 AM on 03/22/2012

If some parents did a better job of teaching their kids to behave then teachers would not have to spank in order to keep disipline in class.

[frozenlake]

12:32 PM on 03/22/2012

A child, as strange as it may seem to some, is already an individual with own interests and motives and therefore should be assisted to develop and discover his her own personality and talents. Zombielike obedience kills any kind of intrinsic motivation and creativity.
If human beings had always obeyed and behaved we would still live in the middle ages.

[skooli]

07:46 AM on 03/22/2012

I think there is a consent form for the parents to sign regarding if they would allow spanking to take place, if nonconsent is submitted then detention or suspension is administered.

[dbrett480]

02:04 PM on 03/21/2012

Spanking might work for younger kids (and that's a big might), but using it against high school students is definitely creepy.

[Indygrl76]

09:42 AM on 03/21/2012

Under any other circumstances, striking a child is considered assault and this practice ended 50 years ago in the other regions of the country. When I moved to Florida, I was stunned to find out that this was still done here. I sent a letter to the school informing them that if any one of them touched my child I would sue them and press criminal charges. Folks, you have to understand that the rural South is 60 years behind the rest of the country... in EVERYTHING! Ugh!

[Sthernbull]

10:08 AM on 03/22/2012

If you do not like the rural South then please LEAVE. I am a teacher in a rural Southern District, there are times when Spanking is the right tool to get a students or classes attention in order to mattain disipline in class. It is not always the case but at times it is needed.

[Indygrl76]

10:13 AM on 03/22/2012

Are you kidding me? That's nonsense! No spanking in the rest of the country and no discipline problems beyond the norm. If you have to hit children to get their attention then YOU need to quit teaching and LEAVE! If you touch my child-- YOU GO TO JAIL!

[hoho5973]

01:34 PM on 03/25/2012

Yeah, what is with all these people that move down here and expect THE SOUTH to change their ways? Nobody asked them to move here..............

[aralpharetta]

10:41 AM on 03/20/2012

Informative yet BARBARIC.

[pphhrogg]

09:01 PM on 03/19/2012

If any teacher ever spanked my child, they would wish they had never been born.

[hoho5973]

01:38 PM on 03/25/2012

Because your child is godilocks, right? Never does any wrong? My aunt is a teacher and it is incredible how many parents never think their child EVER does any wrong. Her experiences have encouraged me to NEVER be a teacher.............

[frozenlake]

08:48 PM on 03/19/2012

Wondering: Why are many people so fiercely defending their "right" to hit children? Think about it! People are getting quite agitated when the fact, that hitting a child is harmful (which is scientifically proven), is brought up. Corporal Punishment can even lower the intelligence of a child.
What is all that really about?
Is it because children are the only ones left parents and teachers are allowed to beat without getting punished? If any adult was subjected by force to that kind of spanking-treatment, it would be highly traumatic and I wouldn't hesitate to call it torture. Humiliation, degradation and pain - sounds horrible if done to an adult, but is okay if done to a child?
My guess is, that people who insist on hitting children, are really defending the sadistic pleasure they get from it. Disguising corporal punishment as something necessary and useful is just a strategy for them to avoid having to face their own sadistic tendencies.

[Sthernbull]

10:09 AM on 03/22/2012

I bet you opposed water boarding too.

[VA Jill]

12:52 PM on 03/19/2012

I grew up in Wisconsin, where corporal punishment in schools was against the law. Teachers found plenty of ways to punish improper behaviors, some of them quite creative! I was appalled when I moved to Tennessee and found out that teachers apparently had a "God-given" right to paddle kids. I routinely signed "Don't paddle my kids" forms at the beginning of each year but they went unheeded and we had no apparent recourse, even as regarded our autistic son. The superintendent's office just passed the buck, saying it was "up to the teacher." Paddling was done for seemingly trivial reasons, like talking in the lunch line. Surely teachers can do better than that! Paddling is too easy; they can use it instead of letting the punishment fit the crime as my teachers in Wisconsin often did. And parent notification? PLEASE! After the fact, if at all.

[pphhrogg]

09:02 PM on 03/19/2012

Of course you have recourse...in the COURTS. Hit them where it hurts them the most....in their wallets!

[MotherOf3Babies]

09:54 PM on 03/19/2012

Disgusting misuse of the reprimand if this is what happened! I too have an autistic child and he has never been paddled... I guess that I am truly blessed to have the educators I have..... But I have a very active role in my children's education...

[Sthernbull]

10:10 AM on 03/22/2012

If State laws allows Teachers to paddle then No she does not have any recourse.

[Assumed Name]

07:21 PM on 03/18/2012

...uncivilized and creepy to boot.

[frozenlake]

03:42 PM on 03/18/2012

@ifquilt I'm sorry, but I couldn't reply on the old threat, because it got too long. Answering here instead. I'm curious about something. I personally think hitting a child has nothing to do with education but is basically a form of semi-suppressed, twisted sadism, which the person committing it can't admit to herself/himself. That's why a moral disguise is needed, a sanctimonious legitimation that enables the perpetrator to be sadistic and at the same time feel morally superior. What do you think is the reason why adults hit children for seemingly (I would go so far to say made up) reasons? What is the underlying psychological motive in your opinion?

[frozenlake]

04:14 PM on 03/18/2012

correction: forgot the word moral. Here the completed sentence:
What do you think is the reason why adults hit children for seemingly (I would go so far to say made up) moral reasons?

[frozenlake]

04:32 PM on 03/18/2012

I surely should overthink my way of spelling thread. Wonder, what Freud might have to say about that!

[BebeCool]

02:50 AM on 03/18/2012

Hitting a child will only enforce the rule that when someone does something bad then they must be hit. Good grief. I didnt know 19 states allowed this. I thought it was only in confederate school districts that still did this blasphemous crap.

[Thanks4Watching]

12:36 AM on 03/18/2012

Dirty old principals across the country have just shouted in joy while reading this article.

[ifquilt]

12:12 AM on 03/18/2012

"I been getting them since about first grade," Lucas Mixon, a junior at Holmes County High School in Bonifay, Fla, told NPR. "It's just regular. They tell you to put your hands up on the desk and how many swats you're going to get."

Well then maybe you need to behave! What happened to the days of -if you got in trouble in school you got it twice as bad at home? Oh yea, it went away with gum chewing being the worst offense.

This week two of my sixth graders got suspended for four days. Having their own fight club going on in the bathroom, with cheering and video. Yep, future Rhodes Scholars. Good grief, this country is becoming a third world toilet.

[noahmarder]

12:27 AM on 03/18/2012

A parent who would punish a child at home just because he was punished at school is a bad parent. Schools, like all other systems of authority, make mistakes with discipline. A parent shouldn't discipline a child unless the PARENT is convinced that the child actually did something wrong. This can only occur after hearing both sides of the story, and trying to piece everything together. One of the fastest ways to ruin a parent-child relationship is with unfair punishments.

[ifquilt]

11:32 AM on 03/18/2012

Yeah, you stick with that thinking. Good luck!

[pphhrogg]

09:04 PM on 03/19/2012

Even more quickly with "teachers" like YOU!

[ifquilt]

10:18 PM on 03/19/2012

Yep that's right buddy. All the teachers are in a secret society to destroy the world. Muhahahahaha.

[Jim in California]

12:04 AM on 03/18/2012

That explains a lot! Must be the law in Texas as well.