Kids misbehaving? That’s a paddlin’

Teachers in Cassville, MO, a small town in the southwestern part of the state, will be allowed to spank unruly children on the butt with paddles this fall – with parental consent – when “other means of discipline have failed,” parents were notified this week.

🏫 More deets… If parents initially opt-in to the practice, commonly known as corporal punishment, they can change their mind at any time by writing a letter to their child’s school.

• A memo sent to parents this week said spankings wouldn’t happen in front of other kids, and would be done by two workers – one who would do the spanking, and the other to serve as a witness. ​​
• Children are typically hit with a wooden paddle that’s two feet long, three inches wide, and half-an-inch thick.

🇺🇸 The big picture: Corporal punishment was declared constitutional in a 1977 Supreme Court decision letting each state decide its own rules.

The practice is currently legal in all private schools across the country, with the exception of Iowa and New Jersey. It’s also legal in public schools across 19 states, and actually practiced in 15 of them. (See which ones.)

• Nearly 70,000 children were physically punished during the 2017-2018 school year, per the most recent Education Department data that’s available.
• Boys were corporally punished more often than girls by a ratio of about 5-to-1, and Black students and those with disabilities were also disproportionately more likely to be punished.

📊 Flash poll: Do you think teachers should be allowed to corporally punish their students – with parental consent – when other discipline options have failed?

Yes

No

Unsure/other