According to the Center for Effective Discipline, corporal punishment is still around in 20 states. Most of these states are in the south, where paddling remains in social and family fabrics in some communities.
Tyler Anastopoulos, a junior who attends City View Junior/Senior High School in Wichita Falls, Texas, got in trouble for skipping detention and got the same punishment that student in rural parts of Texas have been getting for decades. Tyler was sent to the assistant principal office where he received "three swift swats to the backside with a paddle", according to his mother. The blows were so harsh that they resulted in deep bruising that the student wound up in the hospital.
Tyler decided to tell Texas lawmakers his story this past month, which are considering banning corporal punishment. The same week New Mexico voted to end the practice.
However, the superintendent of the City View Independent School District, Steven Harris, claims there was no wrongdoing. He points out, this has long been “one of the tools in the tool box we use for discipline.”
Opponents from banning the punishment, like State Senator Vernon D. Asbil, thinks that with out corporal punishment student won't be able to be kept under control.
The lawmakers of Texas have yet to reach a consensus.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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13 comments:
I researched Texas Child Abuse Laws and found
http://law.findlaw.com/state-laws/child-abuse/texas/
The site states that it against the law to inflict any type of physical abuse against a child that inflicts "...mental or emotional injury impairing child's growth, development, or psychological functioning; physical injury resulting in substantial harm...".
I don't know about you, but if a teacher or Aragon staff member were to give me swats to the backside that resulted in me going to the hospital, I would definitely feel like I was injured emotionally and physically. What Tyler Anastopoulos went through sounds more like abuse than punishment.
Punishment should help and teach students, not physically harm them. Physical punishment does not exist in the real world and therefore it should not exist in schools. When someone misbehaves on the job, their boss doesn't spank them, he fires them which forces them to take time out of their lives to be productive and find other means of employment. Detention or community service is like firing, in that it forces students to take time out of their lives to be productive.
-Sandy Frank
This type of punishment should not be allowed in any circumstance. Teachers have an expected duty to respect their students under most, if not all, circumstances. I would be shocked if a teacher in the San Mateo district ever participated in this unlawful act and I'm not surprised that Tyler Anastopoulos expressed his story of abuse. Additionally, Operant Conditioning in psychology informs us that physical punishment is the worst kind of positive punishment, which is the inclusion of a negative stimulus. This is why parents are highly recommended not to hit their children; not only is it wrong, but also that type of harm does not teach a child a lesson.
In any case, Tyler's assistant principal had no right to hit Tyler and I hope that his assistant principal faces the appropriate consequences for his actions. I don't understand how someone would be able to stand going to a school where this type of punishment was allowed.
If a teacher tried to "Swat" me I would just fight back. Also I thought we were passed barbarian punishment. Our school seems to run fine without corporal punishment.
I don't think corporal punishment should be allowed, and as Sandy and Zoe said, under no circumstance should teachers be allowed to physically harm their students. Although the Texas law states that physical abuse can't inflict "mental or emotional" harm, physical harm should not be allowed either. Although I think corporal punishment is wrong, I do however approve of physical parental discipline. And I stress discipline, which is very different from abuse. There is a extreme cultural difference on this subject, because Asian parents tend to use and approve of physical punishment as mean to discipline their child, which I have found quite effective. So, basically my point is "no" to corporal punishment, leave the physical discipline to the children's parents.
I feel that such punishment shouldn't be allowed in a school setting anymore. However, the student was at fault, but I feel that there is a better way to confront some wrongdoing than swatting the person hard with a paddle. But whatever, at least we don't live in Texas!
I definitely agree with all the above. Corporal punishment should not be allowed in the classroon at all. It is physical abuse. He went to the hospital, that is not just punishment for skipping detention. This would definietly not be okay at our school, or at any other school in California as a matter of fact. This is just seems completely wrong to me. This is the kind of things that could or should happen in the household if it is going to happen. I not saying abusing your child is okay, but I do understand that that is how some parents parent. But for a Principal to do this goes way beyond the principal's responsiblities. There are many other ways the school could come up with for punishments.
I agree with what everyone else said, and I too think that this is ridiculous and corporal punishment should be banned. This story is actually surprising to me, as I didn't realize that there were still states that allow corporal punishment. It's strange to me that people still continue with and advocate for this seemingly ancient form of discipline. Obviously, it used to be the main form of discipline (I think we all hear croaky voices of general grandparents, if they aren't our own, saying "that's how it used to be in my day"), but I assumed we were past that.
It just seems to me that by hitting children in order to discipline them, the schools across the nation that still allow corporal punishment are encouraging violence. Instead of teaching our kids not to resort to violence, by using corporal punishment, schools are telling children that violence is okay and should be used to discipline people. Corporal punishment also leads to (in my opinion) unhealthy learning environments, and as this brochure by the ACLU says, "beatings hurt students, erode the trust between educators and students, and
degrade the larger educational environment." (http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/humanrights/aviolenteducation_execsumm.pdf). How can you trust your teacher if they threaten to beat you if you do anything out of line. I think that corporal punishment does not support a conducive learning environment and teaches children that violence is okay. It is, as I said, so strange to me that people still think it's okay and even the right thing to do to use violence and corporal punishment to keep kids in line.
-Alice Bebbington
It all depends on the context. Being spanked for serious enough reasons can definitely clean up a students behavior. Think about the Aragon class cutting policy. Do you think that students would cut whole periods, days, etc. if there was the serious consequence of being paddled?
Now, I'm not saying that corporal punishment is to be promoted, but I am saying that it sure could help. :-)
I agree with Tim, if the punishment was corporal punishment, I think that far less people would be skipping class or detention. In addition, it would also be downright humiliating to be paddled, so there is also a social motive not to, right?
"He points out, this has long been 'one of the tools in the tool box we use for discipline.'"
Being traditional doesn't inherently make something right. Off the top of my head, I can think of quite a few traditions that are no longer practiced.
-"Women should be at home taking care of children and chores, not at work."
-Witch hunts (i.e., Salem Witch Trials)
-Slavery and anti-ethnic minority sentiment
-Social stigma against members of the LGBT Community (well, it's a work in progress, isn't it?)
Not to be inflammatory or otherwise angsty, but What(TF) do racism, sexism, and whatnot have to do with the issue at hand. In fact, how are people even able to make such issues seem as if they come from the same backing and are in any way correlated/ similar. The movement against racism is separate from the movement against sexism is separate from the movement against discrimination is separate from CORPORAL punishment. Lets not be naive to try and interconnect unrelated issues.
Corporal punishment is something that should be non-existent in schools. In fact, the words "corporal punishment" and "schools" should not even be associated with one another! I used to believe that educational institutions in the United States stopped practicing physical punishment many years ago. Tyler definitely did the right thing by bringing this issue to lawmakers. Physically punishing students will cause physical and mental harm; some students that undergo this kind of treatment could become potentially violent in their adulthood as a result of pent up emotions. Corporal punishment does not make students understand that they have misbehaved-it only makes them want to retaliate against the hand that strikes them. The South is so back-assed sometimes.
I think it's safe to say that this form of punishment is not only pretty inexcusable and should not be allowed, but it is also unnecessary; by this time, society has already established various other forms of punishment that prove effective. Corporal punishment has no place in schools.
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