Sure, the Supreme Court held that corporal punishment in schools was not cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment in Ingraham v. Wright, but we’re better than that now. We don’t let teachers strike kids anymore. We know that’s harmful, that’s cruel and that’s wrong. Or do we?
The road to corporal punishment in Cassville, [Missouri] a city located nearly 60 miles southeast of Springfield, started earlier this year with an anonymous survey of parents, students and school employees.
All three groups identified student behavior and discipline issues as a high concern.
“We started generating ideas on what we could do and corporal punishment was one of the ideas,” he said.
[School Superintendent Merlyn] Johnson said there was more interest than expected in what he called an “old-fashioned disciplinary measure.”
As it turns out, there are 19 states where corporal punishment has not been outlawed by state law, although Cassville prohibited corporal punishment by school policy in 2001. Apparently, things weren’t going as well as hoped.
The district investigated that option along with two others, which were also implemented: The creation of a Success Academy for students who struggle in a traditional setting and the banning of cell phones, air pods, bluetooth headphones and smart watches from the classroom.
But when alternative, positive, behavioral interventions fail, then it’s time to pull out the paddle.
Johnson said it will only be administered by a principal, in the presence of a witness and will never be inflicted in the presence of other students.
The policy states: “When it becomes necessary to use corporal punishment, it shall be administered so that there can be no chance of bodily injury or harm. Striking a student on the head or face is not permitted.”
The only corporal punishment allowed is “swatting the buttocks with a paddle.”
As the Superintendent explains, this beats suspensions or expulsions which takes students out of the classroom and contribute nothing useful to their education. And parents are able to opt their kids out if they reject the idea of allowing the school to spank their kid on the butt.
Will students actually be spanked or will this be held up as a threat to make kids behave? Will it work or will students test their teachers and principal to see if they’ll actually do it? Who knows, but some parents in Cassville seem to be okay with this either way, even if it didn’t win many friends on twitter.
“We’ve had people actually thank us for it,” he said. “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.”
For most of history, corporal punishment was considered quite normal and effective. Sure, there were excesses, but “spare the rod, spoil the child” was a well-worn aphorism. And it’s reminiscent of the days when public flogging was an ordinary punishment, one which quite a few of my clients would have happily chosen over jail time.
At the same time, the idea of striking a child has become widely recognized as child abuse, something unacceptable from parents and intolerable from teachers. But when long, rosy dissertations on the merits of positive reinforcement don’t work, what else do you? It’s generally an article of faith that corporal punishment is wrong and harmful, but what if it actually works?
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Why wouldn’t it work? It’s pretty well known that torture, while ineffective for getting accurate information, works fine for getting them to do what you want. I’m surprised they’re calling it “corporal punishment,” though. These days when the government tortures someone into submission they generally prefer to call it “pain compliance techniques.”
To Cosset and pamper
Will hinder and hamper
The child in whom bad habits lurk
First threaten to throttle
Then uncork the bottle
Brimstone and Treacle will work
Brimstone and Treacle will work.
This seems like a solution for other people’s children. One one hand, seems like a great idea for the hypothetical little shit who won’t stop acting out. On the other hand, the thought of a teacher laying his/her hands on *my* hypothetical little shit is a flat no.
See also, “not every student should go to college” and “the Ivy League ain’t all that.”
NE
Taking a paddle and whacking an adult without their consent is illegal. There is zero reason why the same violence should be legal if used against children.
Is it a parent’s responsibility to raise an unrelated adult and teach them about consequences from misbehavior? If not, then the analogy fails.
What do you do with a kid who disrupts class for everyone, disobeys the teacher, harasses the other kids, etc, but comfortably sits with the knowledge that no adult will lay a hand on him, detention means nothing because he doesn’t want to be in class anyway, and he will face zero consequences at home for his misbehavior at school? I read a case from some Scandinavian country where a young boy blocked the door to a classroom, preventing class from occurring, and the adult who physically removed him from the doorway was held to have violated the boy’s human right to bodily autonomy. What’s the solution to situations like these that doesn’t involve physically and nonconsensually manhandling a minor student?
If it ‘really works’, it might be worth of consideration. But first you should clearly define, which results you expect from precisely which form of corporal punishment, and you should at least make it plausible, that corporal punishment might ‘work’ in the desired way.
‘It works, because the old say so’ is clearly not a sufficient argument. And if your expectation should be something like ‘to beat them into submission’, you better should prepare for some harsh reactions…
In my impression the Cassvillean debate is not far from ‘because the old’ and ‘submission’.
You raise the perpetual conundrum of who bears the burden of proof to justify change. As for corporal punishment, we have a few hundred plus years of experience. As for no permitting corporal punishment, we have a couple decades that have resulted in a couple of deeply troubled generations of severe mental illness, dysfunction, extremism and nihilism. Has anyone sustained their burden of proof?
I didn’t ask for a proof to justify change. I asked for clear definitions of
– what do you want to change
– what results do you expect
– why do you expect this results
I asked for measurable quantities. If we change a running system, than we should be able to quantify the results. Thatfor we need quantifiable goals. Your argument ‘the old folks did so for a few hundred years, and it did work for them’ is not a quantifiable goal.
You should not only ask, why the fence was erected – first you should be able to clearly express, why you want to tear it down.
All good questions. But it’s a two-way street and you’ve offered nothing.
Have you defined meeting the burden of proof in some way that the numerous research papers on the topic have failed to meet?
Why are you making an appeal to tradition instead of looking an empirical data to determine whether something is or is not justified? Surely you recognize that something being normal for a long time doesn’t establish it as effective? And that corporal punishment practices didn’t change overnight (and remains highly prevalent today in other countries), so there’s a wealth of data for studies to analyze?
What do you tell a prosecutor wanting to introduce some bullshit forensics? When he’s going through the history of how it’s been allowed and how it’s been historically viewed as valid, is it “Great point, sir! I shall make no motion to exclude your hair expert!”? Or do you try to get them excluded or limited based on the fact that the longstanding tradition of allowing it and the traditional view of it’s high efficacy doesn’t change the empirical evidence it’s nearly entirely bullshit?
The change in corporal punishment policies were driven by such empirical evidence, as a few minutes on Google Scholar could tell anyone who wished to actually know if anyone had sustained their position.
I’m not taking a position, but raising socratic questions to challenge assumptions. As for making a point, you failed miserably. If you want to sustain your burden, then do it. Instead of writing the utterly worthless “a few minutes on Google Scholar could tell anyone,” just note the study you argue proves your point and prove your point. But you note no study and proved nothing. All those words murdered for nothing.
Not sure if it adds to the conversation, but I know of a teacher that wrongfully paddled a smart kid who was defending himself. That motherfucker never did figure out who slashed all four of his tires at the end of the school year.
Thank goodness for the statute of limitations, eh?
I went to school in the 60’s- early 70’s.
Even in progressive SoCal, corporal punishment was a big part of school discipline. Even the “hard case” students toed the line while in class and on school grounds.