Corporal punishment is only used with a parent`s permission and “only when all other alternative means of discipline have failed, and only in a reasonable form and on the recommendation of the principal,” the district policy states. It was put in place in response to requests from parents, Superintendent Merlyn Johnson told The News-Leader. A commonality among many of these states is that corporal punishment is persistent in the South, where black students are discriminated against by white educators, according to the report. However, it has not been possible to apply these criteria, as no cases of corporal punishment in schools have been included in the court record since Ingraham in 1977, although such a case was referred to the Court in 2007 (Serafin v. School of Excellence in Education, 2007). In this case, Jessica Serafin, an 18-year-old student, had left campus to buy breakfast, but returned before the school bell rang. She was accused of violating the school`s campus closure policy and received corporal punishment as a result of her alleged violation. The principal repeatedly hit her buttocks, hips, legs and hand with a 4-foot piece of wood; The beatings caused her buttocks to bleed and her hand swelling – injuries for which she was treated in a hospital emergency room (Sacks, 2009). Ms. Serafin sued the secondary school, arguing that her rights to due process and equal protection as an adult had been violated. She lost the original case and appealed to the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which dismissed her appeal (Serafin v.
School of Excellence in Education, 2007). Ms. Serafin then appealed to the Supreme Court, which dismissed her application without comment (case No. 07-9760; U.S. Supreme Court, 2008), upholding the Ingraham decision and still legalizing corporal punishment in schools in the United States. In Ayers v. Wells in 2018, Mr. Ayers, deputy principal of Etowah Middle School in Alabama, was accused of using excessive force during a paddling incident in 2016. [76] Justice William Ogletree refused to dismiss the child abuse charges against Mr. Ayers and ruled that immunity laws cannot be an excuse for the use of disproportionate force in punishment. In May 2019, the charges were dropped due to Alabama`s immunity laws.
[77] Research has shown that corporal punishment is associated with unintended negative consequences for children. The following table lists the states where corporal punishment is permitted in schools, by name of state and the number of students affected. In 30 states, corporal punishment – flogging, flogging, beating – is still legal under state, traditional and/or religious law as punishment for crimes committed by young people: inequalities in school discipline have recently received some attention. The U.S. Department of Education urged schools to ensure that discipline is conducted in a manner that is “without regard to a student`s personal characteristics, including race, color, national origin, religion, disability, ethnic origin, sex, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or English language learner status. homeless migrant or student” (U.S. Department of Education, 2014, p. 14). A report by the Council of State Governments` Justice Center highlighted the need for better oversight of discipline between subgroups on race, gender, and disability status (Morgan, Salomon, Plotkin & Cohen, 2014). The Discipline-Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative has published two letters calling for policy and practical initiatives to reduce inequalities in school discipline (Gregory, Bell, & Pollock, 2014; Losen, Hewitt, & Toldson, 2014). All these recent reports have focused on differences in suspensions, expulsions and physical limitations; None mentioned differences in corporal punishment.
As long as corporal punishment is legal in schools in the United States, it is crucial that it be included in policy discussions about reducing demographic inequalities in discipline. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education from 2011 to 2012, the Washington Post reported that while 19 U.S. states still allow corporal punishment in schools, four southern states account for nearly 60 percent of students who “paddle” in public schools: Mississippi (18.73 percent), Texas (17.13 percent), Alabama (16.34 percent) and Georgia (7.36 percent). It has also been found that, on average, a child is met in an American country. African-American students make up about 16 percent of all public school students, but 35 percent of those who receive corporal punishment. Finally, please speak up when you hear others advocate for physical violence against children in our schools. After all, that`s what corporal punishment is. Learn about the history of corporal punishment so you can speak with full knowledge of the subject. Please join parents around the world who believe that children should be raised at home and at school in a safe and caring environment. A study on the link between gender and corporal punishment in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States, which used interviews with approximately 4,000 mothers, fathers and children aged 7 to 10, found that in the United States, 38% of girls and 36% of boys had experienced “light” corporal punishment (beatings, Knocking or hitting with your bare hand; Hitting or hitting the hand, arm or leg; Shake; or hitting with an object), and 4 per cent of girls and 5 per cent of boys had experienced severe corporal punishment (hitting or hitting the child in the face, head or ears) by a member of their household in the past month.
A smaller percentage of parents felt corporal punishment was necessary for child-rearing: among girls, 17 per cent of mothers and 11 per cent of fathers considered it necessary; among boys: 13% of mothers and 16% of fathers. The presence of a witness during paddling is intended to protect the school administration from accusations of sexual abuse. However, the practice itself is high-risk, as the line between punishment and sexual assault is very narrow, especially among adolescents who are already at puberty. [25] Figure 2 is another example of school districts that generally eliminate corporal punishment, with the exception of those in Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi, where its use remains widespread. Although they make up only 15 percent of public school students in the United States, black students make up 37 percent of students subjected to corporal punishment, according to the association. Children with disabilities account for 21 per cent of all corporal punishment cases, while they account for 17 per cent of students. Next, we looked at whether racial differences are more likely to occur when black students are a minority in a school. We identified schools with either a majority of Black students (51% or more) or a majority of non-Black students. Somewhat surprisingly, the rates of black students who were physically punished were the same: 12% of black students were physically punished either in majority black schools or in non-black majority schools.
The corporal punishment rate for white students was also almost the same, at 8% for majority black schools and 7% for non-black majority schools. As a result, it does not appear that Black students are more selected for corporal punishment when they are part of a minority; They are more likely than white students to receive corporal punishment, whether schools are predominantly black or predominantly non-black. [39] House Act 1623 prohibits the use of corporal punishment against students “identified as having the most significant cognitive disabilities” unless a parent or guardian of the child issues a waiver or consents to its use as part of an individualized educational program. Similarly, Missouri law excludes corporal punishment in schools from its child abuse laws and explicitly prevents the Department of Child Protective Services from being in charge of investigations. Allegations of child abuse due to corporal punishment in schools (Missouri Revised Statutes, 2015). Corporal punishment had slowly declined before the pandemic, but remains legal in 19 states, mostly in the South. The practice makes children more aggressive and disruptive, the researchers say. Racial differences in corporal punishment in schools are similar to those seen in suspensions and expulsions, so black children are more likely to receive all forms of academic discipline than their white peers (American Psychological Association [APA] Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008).
Research has largely concluded that differences in suspensions and exclusions are not explained by differences in misconduct; On the contrary, Black children face harsher discipline for the same misconduct as their non-Black peers (APA Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2008; Kinsler, 2011; Smith and Harper, 2015). Few studies have examined the source of racial differences in corporal punishment in schools. An analysis of a Florida school district found that Black children were more likely than other children to receive corporal punishment, even though they committed a lower proportion of serious crimes (McFadden, Marsh, Price, & Hwang, 1992).
