One Florida school board proved paddling is not just a punishment of the past when it voted to bring back corporal punishment this week.
Teachers who work in Marion County public schools will once again be allowed to paddle their rule-breaking students.
The practice was banned back in 2010, when Marion County was one of the largest districts in Florida that still used paddling, but on Tuesday, retired principal and school board member Carol Ely made the motion to bring back corporal punishment.
Teachers, however, won’t be able to paddle students at will. Parents will be given a permission slip once a year and those who oppose corporal punishment can refuse to give teachers permission to paddle their child. Even if the parent has signed the waiver to allow paddling, the principal must also receive verbal permission from the parent at the time of the incident before the misbehaving student can be spanked.
Additionally, each student is only allowed to be paddled once a semester.
Florida is one of 19 states that still allows corporal punishment. Last year, former Democratic state Rep. Ari Porth sponsored a bill to ban school corporal punishment statewide, but the bill died before it even reached the House floor.
