Old-school discipline is finding its way back into the classroom for some schools in Missouri.
The Cassville School District in southern Missouri will reinstate corporal punishment through the use of a paddle to discipline students.
Administrators told KOLR that the change comes after results from a parent survey indicated discipline was one of the biggest concerns that families in the community had.
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“The complaints that we have heard from some of our parents is that they don’t want their students suspended. They want another option,” Superintendent Meryl Johnson said. “And so, this was just another option that we could use before we get to that point of suspension.”
Johnson said parents will have the choice to opt in to the new discipline.
“Corporal punishment will be used only when other means of discipline have failed and then only in reasonable form, when the principal approves it,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that the paddle is not anticipated to be used often but that an administrator would be the only one to carry out the punishment and only in the presence of another certified employee.
Yet Miranda Waltrip, a Cassville School District parent who has three children in the district, said she disagreed with the punishment policy change.
“I feel like if they had a different outlet like counseling services in school instead of corporal punishment, that would be the more appropriate answer,” Waltrip said. “At the end of the day, they are having to hold the child down and spank them or use whatever means that they can to make the child submissive when that is not the issue, it is the fact that they need to be heard because children act out for varied reasons.”
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Johnson said parents have the ability to opt in and opt out at any point during the school year.
