Abolish Corporal Punishment in Americas Public Schools

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We need to abolish corporal punishment in Americas public schools! As an educator, I am appalled this practice is still supported by our American government. The United States is among only three developed nations in the world still allowing corporal punishment in schools. Schools are the only institutions in America in which striking another person is legally sanctioned. It is not allowed in prisons, in the military or in mental hospitals.

In 23 states, school children are still struck with two-foot long boards. Black students are hit at twice the rate of their makeup in the population. Blacks comprise 17\% of students, but receive 37\% of paddlings. Whites make up 63\% of all students, but receive 55\% of the corporal punishment. Teachers in Texas account for more than one-fourth of all school paddlings in the country! In Mississippi, one out of every ten children is struck with a paddle by a teacher. Ending school paddling is the first step we should take.

Ending the legal defense "reasonable corporal punishment" would give children rights provided the rest of our citizens. Ending paddling of school children would send a message to children that hitting is not a way of solving problems.

We wonder why we have so many violent crimes taking place in our country? What kind of lesson are we teaching children when we allow them to be legally beaten at schools with boards!

This discipline practice at our schools must end!!!

423 Signatures

  • Kim Ludlow
  • Dina Zornes
  • Daniel K. Juckett, Jr.
  • Regina M. Juckett
  • Nadine Block
    • Comments
    • In some school districts, parents have no rights regarding the administration of corporal punishment of their children. Parents would be arrested if they left bruises that educators sometimes do in paddlings. In seven states teachers have immunity from lawsuits when they injure children in school paddlings. It's time to end this barbaric practice.
  • Gail M. Glaberman
  • Eleanor M. Wagoner
  • Randy Cox
    • Comments
    • Arkansas teachers hit over 25,000 pupils with a board last year. African Americans, disabled students and males are disproportionately treated in this manner. Their over-representation, when compared to Whites, regular class students and females, is statistically significant beyond .05, which means that until a credible atlernate explanation is advanced, these children are being discriminately treated. Add to this the fact that corporal punishment is not safe, is not more effective than positive alternatives and tends to alienate children from the educational opportunities so vital to participation as productive citizens, and it amounts to terrorism of our own... our most vulnerable. Our public schools must become a place where children are safe from physical aggression and emotional trauma.
  • Diane Spellm,an
  • Roberta Hunter
  • Debbie Haskins
    • Comments
    • We are long over due in this country for legal steps that insure the protection of all children from physical and emotional harm. Abolishing school paddling is an investment in the dignity and excellence of future genereations.
  • Lynn Hougle
  • Jimmy Dunne, People Opposed to Paddling Students, Houston
    • Comments
    • School paddling is legalized child abuse. It must stop.
  • Jordan Riak
    • Comments
    • Paddling does for a child's education what wife beating does for a marriage.
  • Bonnie Lambourn
    • Comments
    • I am also a teacher. We should also add more parenting lesson availability so that children are given alternatives at home and can learn that violence is not a way to solve problems or create love or respect.
  • Laurin McCarley
    • Comments
    • I am in the process of TRYING to get c.p. banned in N.C. We straddle the fence - some counties allow it, others do not....my senators NEED to do SOMETHING. Help!!!
  • Susan Lawrence
    • Comments
    • Stop corporal punishment now!
  • Norm Lee
    • Comments
    • As a teacher, college professor, and author I have worked for 40 years to abolish punishment of children. There is no educational, psychological, or moral justification for inflicting pain or shame on a child. It invariably reaps negative results. We need to STEP OUT of the carrot and stick mode and into a New Non-Punitive Paradigm, as described in my book, PARENTING WITHOUT PUNISHING (see www.nopunish.net).As for corporal punishment, it is urgent that America recognizes that hitting a child is a cowardly act. And whenever we witness it, to STEP UP and intervene. (See my website and sign the "STEP UP to Stop the Hitting" resolution.
  • Marian Hillar
  • Robert Finch
  • Heather Hahn
    • Comments
    • I support this cause fully!
  • Stephen Lawrence
    • Comments
    • Corporal punishment doesn't belong in schools!
  • Rev. Thomas E. Sagendorf
  • Margaret Ettenber
    • Comments
    • If parents are not allowed to beat children, why in God's name should we allow schools or anybody else to do so?
  • Michaela Curtis Alabama Center for Effective Discipline
  • Christina Curtis, RN
  • Harold Smith
  • Joseph Woodard
  • Karalyn Mulligan
  • John DiBiase Jr.
  • Michele Knox, Ph.D.
  • Amy Muhs
  • James M. Williams
    • Comments
    • Long overdue, the world is round?
  • Child Protection Center of Ross County
    • Comments
    • It is difficult to change people's perception that spanking is a necessary way to discipline. I appreciate the education by and passion of those committed to stopping corporal punishment in the schools. The progress has been slow but steady!
  • Doyle Weaver - Citizens Against Physical Punishment
    • Comments
    • Let's make it a crime for anyone to strike a student in the name of education
  • Frank W. Ludlow
  • Sureshrani Paintal
    • Comments
    • Corporal punishment of children perpetuates violence. Schools need to model constructive approaches.
  • Diana Halvorsen
  • Jan Halvorsen
  • Nicole Odell
  • Peggy Fielding
  • Sathish Jetty
  • Patrick
  • Deirdre Flynn
  • Nadene Woelfel
    • Comments
    • They take away your child if you look at them funny, yet teachers can hit or brand. How is that just? I hope these teachers don't have children. If they can be so cruel to others, what are they doing to their own children? School is for education not obstruction.
  • Walter Strauss
  • Joyce P. Flynn
  • Joanne McMenamy
    • Comments
    • violence isn't the answer....
  • John Dozzi
    • Comments
    • As a "seasoned" citizen, I have a memory of the "crack" of a paddle on the backside of a classmate, and sometimes me. It is not the way anymore. Time to stop!
  • Joe O'Donnell
    • Comments
    • Slapping the erogenous buttocks area is child sex abuse. Mr. President, stop protecting crotch slapping child abusers and insist that every child's behind be left alone! http://www.warismuder.com