As students return to schools across the country, parents are grappling with an increase in the use of corporal punishment in the classroom.
The issue was thrust back into the spotlight this month when a small school district in southwestern Missouri announced it was reinstating paddling, a practice the Cassville School District had abandoned in 2001.
The district’s policy states that corporal punishment will only be used if a parent signs off on it and “only when all other alternative means of discipline have failed, and then only in reasonable form and upon the recommendation of the principal.” The district decided to bring back spanking after requests from parents, Superintendent Merlyn Johnson told the Springfield News-Leader.
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“We’ve had people actually thank us for it,” he told the news outlet. “Surprisingly, those on social media would probably be appalled to hear us say these things, but the majority of people that I’ve run into have been supportive.”
However, not all parents are on board with the drastic disciplinary measure. Some parents, such as Randy Vasquez, a father of four, told the Washington Examiner he thinks it’s a good idea to have “a little discipline” in the classroom, but others, such as Cathy Harrell, say no one has the right to lay a hand on her sons, who are 8 and 12 years old.
“Over my dead body,” she told the Washington Examiner.
Parent Khristina Harkey told the Associated Press that she was on the fence about Cassville’s policy. She and her husband chose not to go the paddle route because her son, Anakin Modine, is autistic and would hit back if he were spanked. However, Harkey, a self-described “troublemaker,” said corporal punishment worked on her when she was a student in California.
“There are all different types of kids,” she said. “Some people need a good butt-whipping. I was one of them.”
Corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 19 states, and, though the numbers have declined, about 70,000 public school children were subjected to the punishment in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the latest federal data available. Nearly 4,000 schools reported using corporal punishment that year.
In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled in Ingraham v. Wright that corporal punishment in schools was constitutional. The decision paved the way for states to make their own rules about teachers and staff physically disciplining students.
To Elizabeth T. Gershoff, a professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, the 40-year-old ruling makes little sense. If one adult were to paddle another with a wooden board, it would be considered assault, she told the New York Times.
“But when the teacher hits a smaller person who happens to be a child, these states and these schools are saying it’s OK,” she added. “It’s showing we give children less protection against violence than we give adults.”
The American Psychological Association is one of several groups that have pushed back against corporal punishment in schools and has argued for years that spanking can lead to injury and trauma and has little to no effect on improving behavior.
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Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer with APA, said better methods for eliminating bad behavior include problem-solving training, extra attention in the classroom, and rewarding positive behavior.
“Parents are experts on what works for their own children,” he said. “But it’s important for parents to be educated on very substantial science literature demonstrating again that corporal punishment is not a consistently effective way of changing undesirable behavior.”
