Banning Corporal Punishment For the Sake of the Children

One major problem in our nation is the existence of corporal punishment in both private and public schools. Presently, there are still 22 states (mostly in the South and Midwest) that enforce corporal punishment in some form in order to discipline children in school. The states that still allow the use of corporal punishment are (in alphabetical order) Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), corporal punishment is administered in schools approximately 1 to 2 million times a year in this country (Shidler, 2001).

Many experts believe the practice of paddling on the behind began during the time of slavery. Over the centuries it was also acceptable for husbands to strike their wives, and officers to flog their soldiers (Lopez, 2006). Children were considered property for centuries, “and as such they could be done with as the "owners" deemed proper. In fact families had the right to kill their own children in colonial times," (Lopez, 2006). It was not until the Civil War that these attitudes began to change and first state to ban corporal punishment in schools was New Jersey during the 1860s (Lopez, 2006).

Several countries including Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Cyprus, Denmark, Ukraine  Hungary have banned the corporal punishment of children entirely (Wikipedia, 2006). In the United States, children remain the only set of individuals who can be legally hit. In fact, prisoners and soldiers are better protected from abuse than the average grade-school student. and

Research suggests physical discipline in schools can have many negative effects on children. Children who are spanked risk facing long-term harm that outweighs the short-term advantage of on the spot obedience. According to an article in Current Events in September 2000, “The AAP believes that corporal punishment may adversely affect a student's self-image and school achievement,” (“Should All Schools,” p. 3). Corporal punishment can also promote violence as acceptable behavior for children. Violence can be learned at an early age and once a child has experienced or witnessed violence, he is likely to imitate this type of behavior throughout his life. He is likely to view violence as a means of solving conflict (Shidler, 2001). According to Gershoff (2002), corporal punishment has also been associated with “increases in feelings of humiliation and helplessness” (p.3).

In several cases, schools have found themselves in court over the alleged misuse of corporal punishment. The issue of corporalpunishment has reached as high as the United States Supreme Court, which has upheld the practice as constitutional (“Clearing CorporalPunishment Legalities”, 2003). Parents have also been distraught to find themselves defeated in cases filed after their child was paddled without first receiving the appropriate parental permission. Siding with the families in corporal punishment cases is rare and sometimes for parents who want to protect their child from this type of harsh punishment they have only one option; remove their child from enrollment in a school which uses corporal punishment (“CorporalPunishment Legalities”, 2003).

The Supreme Court case which laid the foundation for corporal punishment policies is Ingraham v. Wright (1977). This case involved two students named James Ingraham and Roosevelt Andrews. These two students received severe paddlings in their Florida junior high school. Ingraham was reportedly hit 20 times for not exiting the stage of the auditorium quickly enough. Roosevelt was allegedly struck four times within a period of 20 days for being late to class. According to the article “CorporalPunishment Legalities” (2003):

Their suit argued that the paddlings were unconstitutional, in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and also of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of due process. The Court, however, rejected both arguments. Because corporal punishment has long been common among parents and school officials alike, the Court found, it could not be classified as "cruel and unusual." Moreover, the Court found that the Eighth Amendment is intended to protect criminals, not schoolchildren, and that children who suffered severe punishment could gain redress by prosecuting officials on such charges as assault and battery, a recourse thought to be sufficient protection for children.

Teachers and administrators “poorly trained in corporal punishment can easily cross the line between appropriate discipline and violent treatment,” (“States Too Slow,” 2002). In August 2002, in Cape Coral Florida, a teacher was forced to resign after striking a fifth-grade student more than 50 times as punishment for talking, whistling and eating candy in the classroom (“States Too Slow,” 2002). In the case Neal v. Fulton County, a high school student sued his varsity football coach in October, 2000 after being struck in the face with a metal lock which caused him to lose his vision in one eye. The football coach claimed he was using his right to use corporal punishment (“Primary and secondary education”, 2001). In October, 2001, a teacher from an Oklahoma private-school was charged with a felony count of injury to a minor student. According to the police report, the teacher allegedly hit the 12-year-old student “with a three-foot dowel rod after he suspected the student of passing a note in class. A Claremore police investigator said the student told police Mullins used a two-handed grip on the dowel rod just like you would hold a baseball bat," (Buchanan, 2004). The teacher was arrested after police found massive bruising on the student (Buchanan, 2004).