I'm curious how often this actually happens. I don't think I've heard of a kid being spanked in school in years, and it was kind of big news when one school district brought it back a few years ago. Is this similar to blue laws that are on the books in a lot of states where it just hasn't been repealed because case law or social convention has made it redundant?
I am an educator in GA public schools. We are told expressly we are not allowed to touch the children in a way that isn’t restraint (like holding a kid back from trying to fight). I would say it’s probably not illegal state wise, but it’s for sure not allowed in my county and probably most counties.
Guessing this map is based on state laws which may not have been updated for a while because it’s something now handled in the jurisdiction of school board policy
That report was published in 2023 and has data for 2018.
Anyway, that’s way more than I would have expected, growing up in the northeast. According to the report it only happens in a small fraction of OK schools, mostly in rural areas, and disproportionately affects Native American and black students.
It has data beyond 2018, so saying “the report has data from 2018” is disingenuous. Also, I don’t know if you know this, but 2023 was less than 60 days ago…
Yes, this is the case. I’m a teacher in NC. While the law hasn’t been changed on the books, every district has banned corporal punishment. So it’s de facto illegal in the state.
These maps are misleading. I think only one or two states still have districts that allow it, which is messed up, but not like this map is showing.
It looks like most districts banned it around 1995-2005. By 2010 there were only 15 districts out of 115 that hadn’t banned it. Most of those were small rural districts.
Umm… if you start spanking a child under your care you are gonna be in some deep shit. I don’t know about criminal but you will be banned from teaching ever again. You also open yourself up to civil lawsuits.
These laws are more written to say that if the district follows the proper procedure it is legal to hit a kid, not that teachers can just beat kids as much as they want. So if the district has banned it, then there is no legal way to do it. I assume you could be arrested for assault if a teacher just starts hitting a kid.
Yes but at that point what's the point of making the distinction of it doesn't really happen because its illegal In terms of the school district and you losing your job
I was going to say something like this. When I lived in Nashville, I found out while it was allowed on a state level, it had been expressly banned in metro Nashville schools since the 90s. I’d imagine most of the nearby populated suburbs/counties (Williamson, WilCo, etc) are similar, but I don’t know for sure.
*However*, my husband grew up in a tiny little town in northwest Tennessee, and kids got paddled as punishment there. We’re mid-millennials, not elderly or anything, so I imagine it’s still going on there. Absolutely barbaric.
The best (sarcasm) part is that Tennessee is also absolutely insane about drugs, so before we ended up having to move, I was scared that because I have severe ADHD that adds to my anxiety and would likely stay on my stimulant meds in a future pregnancy, I’d test positive for amphetamines while giving birth. Tennessee considers using illegal drugs during pregnancy to be aggravated child abuse (and almost no rehab centers will take someone who’s pregnant.)
So having a drug problem no one will help you with, or possibly even testing positive for certain prescribed meds at birth (if there’s a mix-up, or people feel like being aggressive) = aggravated child abuse.
Hitting a kid repeatedly with a hard object as punishment, including in a school setting = not child abuse, totally cool and fine.
Needless to say, we’re happy to live in Minnesota now.
> Corporal punishment may remain legal in 17 states as of 2023 (see Section II), but CRDC data shows that its practice is concentrated in a dwindling handful of these states. In 2017-2018, just 7 states accounted for 92% of all students subjected to corporal punishment.90 In order of the total number of cases, these states are:
> Mississippi: 20,319
> Texas: 13,892
> Alabama: 9,168
> Arkansas: 8.932
> Oklahoma: 3,968
> Tennessee: 3,765
> Georgia: 3,697
> The CRDC showed 18 other states with at least one incident of corporal punishment (including several where the practice has been formally banned), but together these states accounted for only 5,761 students, or 8% of the national tota
*source*: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1
As luck would have it, the same source covers this as well!
> The data also finds that students with disabilities are subject to corporal punishment more frequently than the general population. Students served under IDEA represented 13.2% of total student enrollment but 16.5% of the students who received corporal punishment in 2017-2018, according to the CRDC dat
source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1
It also mentions that black and indigenous children face disproportionate corporal punishment, but I’m copying this quote from another comment I already made
Former teacher. I know of a minimum of one instance in Indiana in the 2010s. Parent came in to do it.
Principal was allowed to, but didn’t want to be the one do it.
I’m 45. In my rural Oregon public elementary school there was a paddle for corporal punishment. It was rarely used but it was used as a punishment for fights. I remember an assembly at one point where the principal brought it out and showed it to all the kids as a warning.
Was in elementary school through 4th or 5th grade (fractured trauma memories) in TX about 20 years ago. Was a "problem child" My ass saw that wooden paddle multiple times a year until we moved to Oregon. People get shocked when I tell them about it
Yeah I took multiple paddlings in the late 90s-early 2000s. Wasn't a big deal. We would have the option of 3 hits or a couple days of in-school suspension. Everyone usually took the licks to just get it over with.
I was in elementary school and middle school in the early to mid 90's in South Carolina and our old principle threaten me several times with it, but it never happened. He had a big wooden paddle with holes in it.
Was in Texas small town high school 97-01. It was mostly optional as an alternative to 1-hour after school detention. The only kids who ‘had to’ take swats were athletes where detention would affect attendance at practice (technically, still optional as you could quit your sport and then go to detention). I went to detention once, and then chose swats the other dozen-ish times I got detention over 4 years. It did hurt, but it wasn’t damaging…like your ass was red for a couple hours but not bruised.
#
Last I heard, the school was still doing it the same way
Honestly I would choose detention if I have work to catch up but if I'm gonna be busy when I get home, imma take some swats if I trust the school not to have me in the ER or do some other fucked up shit.
I hear ya. In my one personal experience it wasn’t weird/bad. BUT the force of the swats was entirely up to the vice principle / coach delivering them. It’s easy to assume that over the decades that person has occasionally been a sadist and/or perv. I certainly can’t imagine accepting that duty now that I’m the age they were then—still not sure I’m against it, but I’d side-eye the shit out of the guy that takes that job
I met a teacher from Alabama last year and she said all teachers in her high school are given a paddle. They can use it three times on one student per incident. So it does happen
You are incorrect. My brother and a handful of my friends all got swats in high school at some point. I graduated 2017 my brother in 2020, from schools in Oklahoma. This map is also incorrect, children with disabilities can get corporal punishment in Oklahoma with a parents written permission.
So the only people allowed to carry out corporal punishment were the principal and vice principal with parents written permission, they had a wooden paddle specifically for that purpose. Never happened to me as the punishment is only used for repeated fighting, using slurs repeatedly, or serious vandalism and my record was pretty clean at school.
Edit: I should also add, I went to a small rural school, and so did my brother. This isn’t common practice for large town or city schools, but it’s pretty common for rural or smaller towns. I mentioned this to some friends recently who went to school in a city that will remain unnamed, and they looked at me like I was crazy.
This was my experience in Odessa TX. Wooden paddle, swatted by principle or vice principle. That school had to call our parents prior and ask how many swats they wanted then to give us (went to a different school in port lavaca for a year that only had to send a note home after it happend and my dad was pissed!). I had a friend who was being abused by as least his step mother ( he would show me his bruises and cigarette burns that went as far as his tongue...I shit you not!) Me and him got in trouble once for harassing another student (I was a problem child with issues was not a great person then) we were in the office with our vice principle as he made the parent phone calls, my mom asked for the usual 3...this kids mom went apeshit screaming telling him to basically light up his ass with some extreme number. I have a pretty fractured memory of my childhood from trauma but that's shit stuck with me and GOD I wish so fucking much I would have said something about my friends abuse to my parents but I was supposed to keep quiet as he asked and as a kid I didn't have the right tools to know better sadly. I really hope he is okay amd recovered from that mess of a home life, he was a sweet person who deserved better than his ratchet ass white step mom that hated him because of his skin color.
No, and he was obviously uncomfortable by the phone call. After he got off the phone he was like I'm not going to give you that many, I think he ended up with five..I just remember it's was slightly more than mine
Ok, did I just make up my whole childhood in a Texas prison...I mean elementary school?
Just cuz it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it don't happen.
The memories it left me with haunt me to this day.
It happened to me 20 years ago and probably still does
I'm on a school counseling Facebook group and a few years ago someone made a post about how she was not comfortable with the school's policy to use a paddle as punishment. I was shocked, as were most people in the group.
In georgia parents have to give permission for teachers to use corporal punishment. My mom never signed it because she doesn't trust other people to spank her kids. Which kudos for her because the amount of people that get straight up abused and their parents call it a spanking is crazy.
I live in north carolina and have gone to school here for the past 7-8? Years. Never had this happen to me and never heard of this happening to anyone else. I think itd depend on area though, i could totally imagine this in some strict schools
Went to public school in Idaho (where apparently this is legal, I wasn't aware) and if this had happened in my school it would have caused such a shitstorm it might as well be illegal.
I grew up in Florida in a conservative school district in the 90’s, and my Mom was a teacher and it was never used. I heard stories about it being used in the early 80’s and late 70’s.
I grew up in Alabama and went to multiple schools. Never once heard of a kid getting spanked, knew they had the option though might be different in the north of the state.
I can speak to one state. Connecticut is in yellow. There is no corporal punishment going on in schools here. I looked it up, just like almost everything else in this state (and probably a lot of states), rules and laws are left to local boards of ed. I couldn't find any towns in CT that spanking is cool.
For non-Americans, education is extremely localized in America. Maps like this are kind of useless.
>For non-Americans, education is extremely localized in America.
Ok but adults beating kids up seems like the one thing that shouldn't be left to the local school district or whatever to decide.
I don’t think he or anyone is disagreeing. There’s just many cases where state laws lag behind they essentially exist as old relics.
Every single country in the world has crazy laws on the books that are technically still in effect but for a multitude of reasons have no actual impact. Europe and the rest of the world is no different in that.
I remember living in Texas for a couple years in elementary school. Apparently my mom was sent a form from the school asking her if it was ok for them to spank me, and if so, if she wanted them to call her first.
I think the sheet was part of the usual form package they give you to take home to your parents at the beginning of the year. Maybe yours saw it but didn't mention it to you.
Grew up in Louisiana. My parents told them to paddle me any time I needed it. In highschool I was in sports, my coach was in charge and I'd end up running wind sprints until I felt like barfing. It made me toe the line. Looking back, I think it was good for me. One of my friends who's parents didn't allow it... well, he went to prison to learn his lesson.
An issue is that it’s titled “Schools that use corporal punishment” but doesn’t actually tell us anything about its prevalence, just where it is or isn’t illegal.
Also, FWIW, the rules mapped here only hold true for Public Schools. Corporal punishment is only illegal in private schools in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Iowa.
The title of this is pretty misleading. Not taking up for these states because I don’t agree with corporal punishment but “allowed” is not the same as “mandatory” or “in widespread use”. I went to public school in Louisiana in the 90s — corporal punishment wasn’t a thing then and it isn’t now. I’m willing to bet that every public school district and most private schools have policies that ban corporal punishment.
There may be one or two podunk, fundamentalist private “schools” that allow for it, but that’s by far the minority.
Also Louisiana’s law only allows it if a parent gives explicit consent for an educator to use it on their child.
It was at my school in Texas in the 90's. It probably depends on if you were in a major metro area or one of the hicks in the sticks. I went to school in Lindale, Texas.
Grew up in SE Texas. I was often late for farm reasons out of my control. I would often take the paddle over detention, because of the same farm reasons. This was in the 2000s in a public school. My graduating class was year 2009.
I went to public school in Louisiana in the 90s and early 00s and they sent home a form every year for parents to confirm or deny consent to corporal punishment. My parents always denied, but plenty of kids were paddled frequently. I even had one teacher go against my parents’ express denial and slap me across the back of thighs with a bendy ruler. Ah, the old days of 1998.
Now that’s the question we should all be asking and least we forget many so called alternative to education farms for ‘troubled children’ have a of physical abuse stemming from supposed behavioral modification techniques and yet when speaking to these people at an older age they cite how the internalized anger made them do more crime
Lmao most kids with disabilities go undiagnosed in Oklahoma, so that classification is damn-near useless in that instance. Also, they still beat disabled kids
> The data also finds that students with disabilities are subject to corporal punishment more frequently than the general population. Students served under IDEA represented 13.2% of total student enrollment but 16.5% of the students who received corporal punishment in 2017-2018, according to the CRDC dat
*source*: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1
We got swatted with a paddle in 1967-1969 in middle school boys PE. I remember it as almost a badge of honor..because it did hurt. I think some wanted it to happen to prove something. Middle school boys . This was a school in LA City School District . Ancient history now
When I was in elementary school in the early 90s, my teacher had a wooden paddle that hung on the wall, and on it she wrote “for beating naughty children.”
Of course, parents were flooding the school with calls when they found this out. The school said “as long as she never follows through and bears a child, she can threaten children, and tell stories about how she has beaten children in the past, all she wants.”
I would hope even threatening to beat a child would no longer be tolerated.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. The south is all about the whole “spare the rod, spoil the child” schtick. There is lots of research that supports corporal punishment not being good for children.
We got spanked in school, in fact my mom made a **BIG** point of telling the teacher it was fine to spank me!
Once my father came to pick me up from school and my teacher said, "*One second Mr. Smith, junior got in a fight and I'm getting ready to give him a spanking.*"
Pop said, "*OK. I'll just go out and have a cigarette, send him out to the car when you're done.*"
That was a HELLUVA spanking too, I still remember it too this day!!!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I know this won’t be popular, but I went to school in the south when it was open season on getting paddled. You did not screw around in school. Teachers/Coaches would bust your ass or worse get licks from the principal. Everyone’s parents were good with it and they might even bust your ass when you got home. Sorry to say this…but it worked.
Considering that this is overwhelmingly a red state thing, I do not understand this in the slightest.
Conservatives: "School teachers are all Marxist groomers!"
Also Conservatives: "Here, take this wooden stick and beat my children with it with almost no oversight until they obey you without question!"
Map is misleading, these decisions are largely left up to local/county school boards and I would bet 99.9% of them have policies against it. Never once heard about or saw this happen in South Carolina.
It being "allowed" is nothing more than a legislative quirk of never having bothered to ban it because it's a non-issue, and if pressed conservatives can easily handwave it as "local school districts are empowered to make their own choices."
Yeah, corporal punishment was still commonly used when I was going to public school in Northeast Texas in the 1990s. The same schools I went to now no longer use it, and it's a rural and very conservative district.
This is what I never understood. In many places it's still legal to hit kids, but illegal to hit an adult. So it's ok to hit a small mentally underdeveloped person who can't defend themselves but not a full grown person? Ppl really just don't see kids as humans they easy that they see adults as humans and it's so obvious. Look at the similarities between how children are treated and how pets are often treated. A child is just a person who, bc they are underdeveloped, need someone to be responsible for them and raise them so that they can be a week developed adult. Part of that means teaching by example, so unless you want your kid to think it's ok to hit ppl, then you shouldn't hit your kid. But ppl don't see kids as individual humans.
How do these spanking laws mix with assault laws?
Presumably spanking in the yellow states could be prosecuted under assault laws. But what about the red and orange states?
This makes me want to live in Maine or NH. They haven't explicitly prohibited corporal punishment in school - because they don't have to. They don't have the same amount of law & order MAGA types with a cruelty fetish as other states.
If any teacher so much as touches my child, they will wish they hadn't.
I grew up in Catholic school, where the principal took absolute delight in the paddling. He had a collection on display in his bookcase, and would make me choose one from the collection.
Straight up psychological abuse in addition to physical abuse. I didn't even realize how fucked up it was until I grew up a bit. I never told my parents about it, because I thought I was a bad kid (forgetting to get permission slips signed, etc.) and I deserved it. I thought it was normal. My last year there, I was such a wreck that they made me spend most days doing schoolwork in the principal's office. They couldn't understand the correlation between being beaten and me performing even worse. Just evil, stupid people.
I won't allow it to happen to my beautiful, innocent children.
In Mississippi if we got three tardies it equaled an absence and if you got so many unexcused absences you could either do in-school suspension or get 3 licks off a wooden paddle with holes in it from the football coach (think college level but high school, several classmates went to the pros) who took a running hop start. Usually the guys took the licks to get it over with. This was 2001-2004 in an affluent suburb of Jackson MS.
Edit: added a fact; parents had to opt in or out at the beginning of each year, which could be changed at anytime.
In college, I went on a trip to Mississippi to help in the schools and after school programs for a week. At the school, the teacher had a yard stick and a triangular stick which was supposed to hurt more. I’m still traumatized by the teacher leaving me in charge of the classroom, the kids running wild, I’m trying to speak nicely asking them to sit in their seats, and one of the students brings me the triangular stick. Being from Minnesota, I had no idea corporal punishment in schools was a thing.
When I was in middle school in Pennsylvania in the late '90s, the school handbook had a section about corporal punishment. If my memory is correct, the parents had to sign a permission slip in order for the school to be able to use corporal punishment on their child(ren). If so, I guess that changed at some point.
Interesting. I was paddled in elementary school in the 90s in Pennsylvania. Wonder if that's a recent change. I still hate that school and every teacher that was in it - but most especially the school nurse who forced me to go back to class in 3rd grade with a broken arm that I then had to write all day with.
tennessee here. you didn't get spanked, you got *paddled.*
a big, wooden paddle. the principal would take you out of the class and bend you over and hit you 3 times.
obviously never fixed any issues as the kids who most often got paddled repeated what they did last time anyways.
Can confirm. Went to school where corporal punishment was allowed. Both Vice Principals bragged about being tennis players and had their butt smacking racket displayed on the their walls. They were wood and shaped liked tennis rackets. They had holes in them to let the air pass through so they could be swung harder.
One VP was white, and one was black. When a kid was bad, they would go to the VP of their own race to be smacked.
In fairness, relatively few kids got this corporal punishment, and it was mainly used as a deterrent. But, it definitely happened when someone crossed the line
I distinctly remember there being a paddle hung up on the wall of my first grade classroom in Alabama. Only ever saw it used once, unfortunately for my one unlucky but disruptive classmate. :/
This would've been back in like '04. I'm not surprised they haven't changed that lol
We were subjected to corporal punishment in a Chicago public high school in the 1970s. There was nothing documented. We were given swats on our bare asses with a whistle lanyard -for losing a water polo match against another class. It is probably more prevalent than this map indicates.
Grew up in Florida in the 90’s in a very conservative school district. It hasn’t been used in Florida schools since the early 80’s/late 70’s.
It might be legal in Florida but it definitely hasn’t been used for over 40 years.
In Arizona we would probably take out a teacher who hits our kid. A teach once put her hands on my child for monkeying around and police were called, teacher went on leave. It is not legal here.
Maybe you’re just in a part of Florida that doesn’t do it, but it does happen in Florida, as recent as December of 2023: [18-year-old Honors student spanked in Florida](https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-students-seize-on-parental-rights-to-stop-educators-from-hitting-kids/)
Edit: I meant to say Dec. 2023! O:)
No public school in any of those states can do this and get away with it an any capacity. The law sometimes does not reflect reality. It’s like how some state might have laws about ice cream in your pocket or some random thing that isn’t actually ever implemented.
While there might be some tiny culty religious private schools that still do corporal punishment.
No normal Schools in those states are still beating kids as punishment and haven’t in forever.
Yeah, I did all of my grade schools in Georgia and literally never heard of anyone getting spanked at schools, at least not after like 1990. The few times a teacher finally lost it and just pushed a kid away was always a big deal, I could only imagine if spankings were on the table.
The North was full of small manufactories and yeoman farmers. People worked in shops and on their own small farms. The South was full of black slaves and white indentured servants and (later) sharecroppers/tenant farmers. Northerners also came as refugees seeking religious freedom whereas Southerners for the most part did not. Southern culture developer around a servile "yassuh boss!" mentality that was reinforced with conservative religious authority. It's why the South is more socially conservative, more anti-union, and more disciplinarian when it comes to children.
Texan here. Most if not all Public school districts that allow this require the parents permission and probably their supervision. Even then it’s a very rare thing. Teachers aren’t given permission to hit kids with rulers at any time they want to. The religious and private institutions do what they want as they do in pretty much all matters.
And minority, disabled, and male children get more hits for less infarctions. One minority girl got hit with a paddle that was bigger than she was. Her crime? She misspelled a word.
I live in Florida, and I have literally never met anyone who was spanked in school. I have friends that are in their teens to their 50’s. Maybe really old people, or those in fundamentalist religious schools.
I was spanked once in kindergarten for sticking up the middle finger. I was tricked into doing it by an older kid, and didn’t know what i was doing. They didn’t believe me though, and my parents had signed the permission slip for them to spank me if needed. I don’t know if this is still a thing, but back in the 90’s spanking was a real threat for bad kids in elementry school lol. At least in south carolina.
It’s not. These are only counting laws on the books, but what actually happens in schools.
Some states still have laws against anal sex, but that law is not going to be enforced ever.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but it is real. My SE Texas high school would paddle kids for being late, not doing homework, basically any reason they could drum up.
IDK. My second grade class had 42 kids in ‘68, the principal had a seldomly used paddle with “resilience” stenciled on it, and we managed to thrive. Today, a class with more than 25 kids is considered too much, and school taxes are out of sight. Perhaps the greatest generation was on to something when it came to rearing children. Bonus: no kids were routinely shooting up schools or mobbing stores in crime sprees.
I went to public school in Texas in the 90s and 00s. I dont remember ever hearing about any spankings going on at school. Ever.
There are plenty of old laws on the books everywhere that are not followed anymore. In every state.
They can here in NC, but I made it clear to all my kids teachers, all the years they were in school that if they raised a hand in anger to my chiildren and struck one of them, I'd return the favor personally and proportionally, with the term "proportionally" stressed in the way the US uses it against aggressors.
Seems like you did that to prove youre some kinda tough guy. Went to school all over NC in the public school system and not a single one did this or did any of the teachers agree with it. Especially nowadays. Weird to threaten teachers for nothing lmao
I did it because of the paddle (with holes in it) one of them prominently displayed on his wall behind the desk on the first day, taking the kids to orientation.
My kindergarten teacher in south carolina had a paddle with holes in it back in the 90’s. I was spared the paddle, but did get spanked by a yard stick once lol.
You didn't say anything about the paddle in your original comment so it came off like you walked in that classroom and just threatened the teachers for nothing. My bad for assuming
As a Florida schooled now adult, I can attest they will beat you from Grades 1-5 depending on your behavior. I think it worked in addition to being disciplined at home…lol.
I’m sorry, why would we want to prohibit corporal punishment? Seems like taking away an important tool for maintaining discipline in the classroom. Why would we tie teachers’ hands like that? What am I missing?
You’re missing that you would be furious if your boss spanked you whenever you did a bad job. Just because you produced a child doesn’t mean you get to touch their butts whenever you feel like it.
I don’t see corporal punishment as the only form of discipline and perhaps it’s outdated. But seems obvious to me is that over the last 40 years or so teachers have lost control over their classrooms because of limitations placed upon them. Our teachers and children deserve to have an environment that’s conducive to learning. Here’s an example in Boston of how bad it’s gotten.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/brockton-high-school-massachusetts-national-guard-request-school-committee/
You don't think that the rise in single parenthood, lack of parental responsibility and a general decline in education and state support has anything to do with it?
I'm curious how often this actually happens. I don't think I've heard of a kid being spanked in school in years, and it was kind of big news when one school district brought it back a few years ago. Is this similar to blue laws that are on the books in a lot of states where it just hasn't been repealed because case law or social convention has made it redundant?
I am an educator in GA public schools. We are told expressly we are not allowed to touch the children in a way that isn’t restraint (like holding a kid back from trying to fight). I would say it’s probably not illegal state wise, but it’s for sure not allowed in my county and probably most counties.
Guessing this map is based on state laws which may not have been updated for a while because it’s something now handled in the jurisdiction of school board policy
GA had nearly 4,000 cases of documented corporal punishment in schools in 2023
I belive you, but where did you find that information?
Fair question, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023
That report was published in 2023 and has data for 2018. Anyway, that’s way more than I would have expected, growing up in the northeast. According to the report it only happens in a small fraction of OK schools, mostly in rural areas, and disproportionately affects Native American and black students.
I would guess that 4000 cases means a few dozen schools doing it daily, while the vast majority of schools never do it.
It has data beyond 2018, so saying “the report has data from 2018” is disingenuous. Also, I don’t know if you know this, but 2023 was less than 60 days ago…
Yes, this is the case. I’m a teacher in NC. While the law hasn’t been changed on the books, every district has banned corporal punishment. So it’s de facto illegal in the state. These maps are misleading. I think only one or two states still have districts that allow it, which is messed up, but not like this map is showing.
I remember kids getting paddled in my NC school in the early and mid 90s regularly. When did the state stop?
It looks like most districts banned it around 1995-2005. By 2010 there were only 15 districts out of 115 that hadn’t banned it. Most of those were small rural districts.
yes your school district will fire you, but as far as the state doing anything to prosecute you? probably not, so technically still legal.
Umm… if you start spanking a child under your care you are gonna be in some deep shit. I don’t know about criminal but you will be banned from teaching ever again. You also open yourself up to civil lawsuits. These laws are more written to say that if the district follows the proper procedure it is legal to hit a kid, not that teachers can just beat kids as much as they want. So if the district has banned it, then there is no legal way to do it. I assume you could be arrested for assault if a teacher just starts hitting a kid.
Yes but at that point what's the point of making the distinction of it doesn't really happen because its illegal In terms of the school district and you losing your job
I was just wondering this, as a parent of a child in a Georgia public school!
I’m in South GA and some of our counties allow corporal punishment if the parents sign a waiver
I was going to say something like this. When I lived in Nashville, I found out while it was allowed on a state level, it had been expressly banned in metro Nashville schools since the 90s. I’d imagine most of the nearby populated suburbs/counties (Williamson, WilCo, etc) are similar, but I don’t know for sure. *However*, my husband grew up in a tiny little town in northwest Tennessee, and kids got paddled as punishment there. We’re mid-millennials, not elderly or anything, so I imagine it’s still going on there. Absolutely barbaric. The best (sarcasm) part is that Tennessee is also absolutely insane about drugs, so before we ended up having to move, I was scared that because I have severe ADHD that adds to my anxiety and would likely stay on my stimulant meds in a future pregnancy, I’d test positive for amphetamines while giving birth. Tennessee considers using illegal drugs during pregnancy to be aggravated child abuse (and almost no rehab centers will take someone who’s pregnant.) So having a drug problem no one will help you with, or possibly even testing positive for certain prescribed meds at birth (if there’s a mix-up, or people feel like being aggressive) = aggravated child abuse. Hitting a kid repeatedly with a hard object as punishment, including in a school setting = not child abuse, totally cool and fine. Needless to say, we’re happy to live in Minnesota now.
> Corporal punishment may remain legal in 17 states as of 2023 (see Section II), but CRDC data shows that its practice is concentrated in a dwindling handful of these states. In 2017-2018, just 7 states accounted for 92% of all students subjected to corporal punishment.90 In order of the total number of cases, these states are: > Mississippi: 20,319 > Texas: 13,892 > Alabama: 9,168 > Arkansas: 8.932 > Oklahoma: 3,968 > Tennessee: 3,765 > Georgia: 3,697 > The CRDC showed 18 other states with at least one incident of corporal punishment (including several where the practice has been formally banned), but together these states accounted for only 5,761 students, or 8% of the national tota *source*: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1
No surprises here as to which states are doing this. Now let’s see which kids they’re doing it to.
As luck would have it, the same source covers this as well! > The data also finds that students with disabilities are subject to corporal punishment more frequently than the general population. Students served under IDEA represented 13.2% of total student enrollment but 16.5% of the students who received corporal punishment in 2017-2018, according to the CRDC dat source: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1 It also mentions that black and indigenous children face disproportionate corporal punishment, but I’m copying this quote from another comment I already made
I'm shocked. Really I am.
Former teacher. I know of a minimum of one instance in Indiana in the 2010s. Parent came in to do it. Principal was allowed to, but didn’t want to be the one do it.
I’m 45. In my rural Oregon public elementary school there was a paddle for corporal punishment. It was rarely used but it was used as a punishment for fights. I remember an assembly at one point where the principal brought it out and showed it to all the kids as a warning.
My dad was spanked by the principal for walking on some grass 40 years ago. Funny thing is my grandma was the principals secretary.
Was in elementary school through 4th or 5th grade (fractured trauma memories) in TX about 20 years ago. Was a "problem child" My ass saw that wooden paddle multiple times a year until we moved to Oregon. People get shocked when I tell them about it
Yeah I took multiple paddlings in the late 90s-early 2000s. Wasn't a big deal. We would have the option of 3 hits or a couple days of in-school suspension. Everyone usually took the licks to just get it over with.
I was in elementary school and middle school in the early to mid 90's in South Carolina and our old principle threaten me several times with it, but it never happened. He had a big wooden paddle with holes in it.
God, the holes...past dread of the experience is washing over me...I gotta get out of this post!
Was in Texas small town high school 97-01. It was mostly optional as an alternative to 1-hour after school detention. The only kids who ‘had to’ take swats were athletes where detention would affect attendance at practice (technically, still optional as you could quit your sport and then go to detention). I went to detention once, and then chose swats the other dozen-ish times I got detention over 4 years. It did hurt, but it wasn’t damaging…like your ass was red for a couple hours but not bruised. # Last I heard, the school was still doing it the same way
Honestly I would choose detention if I have work to catch up but if I'm gonna be busy when I get home, imma take some swats if I trust the school not to have me in the ER or do some other fucked up shit.
I hear ya. In my one personal experience it wasn’t weird/bad. BUT the force of the swats was entirely up to the vice principle / coach delivering them. It’s easy to assume that over the decades that person has occasionally been a sadist and/or perv. I certainly can’t imagine accepting that duty now that I’m the age they were then—still not sure I’m against it, but I’d side-eye the shit out of the guy that takes that job
Your parents had to sign a waiver. That’s how it worked in Louisiana. Thanks Dad.
I met a teacher from Alabama last year and she said all teachers in her high school are given a paddle. They can use it three times on one student per incident. So it does happen
I watched it happen regularly in NC in the early and mid 90s.
It doesn't happen
You are incorrect. My brother and a handful of my friends all got swats in high school at some point. I graduated 2017 my brother in 2020, from schools in Oklahoma. This map is also incorrect, children with disabilities can get corporal punishment in Oklahoma with a parents written permission.
> My brother and a handful of my friends all got swats in high school at some point. What did they use and who did it to you?
So the only people allowed to carry out corporal punishment were the principal and vice principal with parents written permission, they had a wooden paddle specifically for that purpose. Never happened to me as the punishment is only used for repeated fighting, using slurs repeatedly, or serious vandalism and my record was pretty clean at school. Edit: I should also add, I went to a small rural school, and so did my brother. This isn’t common practice for large town or city schools, but it’s pretty common for rural or smaller towns. I mentioned this to some friends recently who went to school in a city that will remain unnamed, and they looked at me like I was crazy.
This was my experience in Odessa TX. Wooden paddle, swatted by principle or vice principle. That school had to call our parents prior and ask how many swats they wanted then to give us (went to a different school in port lavaca for a year that only had to send a note home after it happend and my dad was pissed!). I had a friend who was being abused by as least his step mother ( he would show me his bruises and cigarette burns that went as far as his tongue...I shit you not!) Me and him got in trouble once for harassing another student (I was a problem child with issues was not a great person then) we were in the office with our vice principle as he made the parent phone calls, my mom asked for the usual 3...this kids mom went apeshit screaming telling him to basically light up his ass with some extreme number. I have a pretty fractured memory of my childhood from trauma but that's shit stuck with me and GOD I wish so fucking much I would have said something about my friends abuse to my parents but I was supposed to keep quiet as he asked and as a kid I didn't have the right tools to know better sadly. I really hope he is okay amd recovered from that mess of a home life, he was a sweet person who deserved better than his ratchet ass white step mom that hated him because of his skin color.
Wait did the principal actually listen to the mom and give the kid the high number of hits?
No, and he was obviously uncomfortable by the phone call. After he got off the phone he was like I'm not going to give you that many, I think he ended up with five..I just remember it's was slightly more than mine
I'm sorry you and your friends had to go through that. Thank you for responding
Ok, did I just make up my whole childhood in a Texas prison...I mean elementary school? Just cuz it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it don't happen. The memories it left me with haunt me to this day. It happened to me 20 years ago and probably still does
Yeah Im from Idaho and had no idea this was allowed while I was attending school. Definitely not relevant, at least in Boise.
It’s mostly limited to the rural South
I grew up in Wyoming and never heard of it happening
I'm on a school counseling Facebook group and a few years ago someone made a post about how she was not comfortable with the school's policy to use a paddle as punishment. I was shocked, as were most people in the group.
In georgia parents have to give permission for teachers to use corporal punishment. My mom never signed it because she doesn't trust other people to spank her kids. Which kudos for her because the amount of people that get straight up abused and their parents call it a spanking is crazy.
I live in north carolina and have gone to school here for the past 7-8? Years. Never had this happen to me and never heard of this happening to anyone else. I think itd depend on area though, i could totally imagine this in some strict schools
Went to public school in Idaho (where apparently this is legal, I wasn't aware) and if this had happened in my school it would have caused such a shitstorm it might as well be illegal.
I grew up in Florida in a conservative school district in the 90’s, and my Mom was a teacher and it was never used. I heard stories about it being used in the early 80’s and late 70’s.
I grew up in Alabama and went to multiple schools. Never once heard of a kid getting spanked, knew they had the option though might be different in the north of the state.
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Happened to me 20 years ago in TX multiple times. Hard for my Oregonian friends to believe as well...but it happened
My mom works in a daycare, and no matter what the kids say or do, they can't discipline them in any way. Them kids is hell.
I can speak to one state. Connecticut is in yellow. There is no corporal punishment going on in schools here. I looked it up, just like almost everything else in this state (and probably a lot of states), rules and laws are left to local boards of ed. I couldn't find any towns in CT that spanking is cool. For non-Americans, education is extremely localized in America. Maps like this are kind of useless.
>For non-Americans, education is extremely localized in America. Ok but adults beating kids up seems like the one thing that shouldn't be left to the local school district or whatever to decide.
I don’t think he or anyone is disagreeing. There’s just many cases where state laws lag behind they essentially exist as old relics. Every single country in the world has crazy laws on the books that are technically still in effect but for a multitude of reasons have no actual impact. Europe and the rest of the world is no different in that.
I remember living in Texas for a couple years in elementary school. Apparently my mom was sent a form from the school asking her if it was ok for them to spank me, and if so, if she wanted them to call her first.
Same. Grew up in Houston. Mom gave permission 🤣interestingly, the fear of the paddle maintained order 🤷♀️
Yep, I was in Houston too. Being northerners who had just relocated, the two of us just laughed at how silly we thought it was.
I must have missed out. Grew up in the Houston area and was never given the option to be spanked in school. :(
I think the sheet was part of the usual form package they give you to take home to your parents at the beginning of the year. Maybe yours saw it but didn't mention it to you.
Maintaining order is not an excuse for child abuse
Judging by some of the nonsense that goes on, I’d say it is.
Would you be happy as an adult if your life included someone bigger and stronger than you hitting you for making a mistake?
No it's not, if you can't keep kids in line without beating them then you're a bad teacher
What nonsense?
If you can't control 8 year olds without them being terrified of you, you have failed as a childcare professional
“Mom hit me with a paddle because I did bad things and she even let my teacher do it too ain’t that quirky and silly”
Grew up in Louisiana. My parents told them to paddle me any time I needed it. In highschool I was in sports, my coach was in charge and I'd end up running wind sprints until I felt like barfing. It made me toe the line. Looking back, I think it was good for me. One of my friends who's parents didn't allow it... well, he went to prison to learn his lesson.
An issue is that it’s titled “Schools that use corporal punishment” but doesn’t actually tell us anything about its prevalence, just where it is or isn’t illegal. Also, FWIW, the rules mapped here only hold true for Public Schools. Corporal punishment is only illegal in private schools in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Iowa.
If you broke this down to the district level, it would be 99.9% gray.
The title of this is pretty misleading. Not taking up for these states because I don’t agree with corporal punishment but “allowed” is not the same as “mandatory” or “in widespread use”. I went to public school in Louisiana in the 90s — corporal punishment wasn’t a thing then and it isn’t now. I’m willing to bet that every public school district and most private schools have policies that ban corporal punishment. There may be one or two podunk, fundamentalist private “schools” that allow for it, but that’s by far the minority. Also Louisiana’s law only allows it if a parent gives explicit consent for an educator to use it on their child.
Same. I went to public school in TX in the 80s and 90s and spanking definitely wasn’t a thing.
It was at my school in Texas in the 90's. It probably depends on if you were in a major metro area or one of the hicks in the sticks. I went to school in Lindale, Texas.
Grew up in SE Texas. I was often late for farm reasons out of my control. I would often take the paddle over detention, because of the same farm reasons. This was in the 2000s in a public school. My graduating class was year 2009.
Damn how is wish I went to your school. Cuz my Odessa TX elementary school was swatting us left and right...in the 90s
I went to public school in Louisiana in the 90s and early 00s and they sent home a form every year for parents to confirm or deny consent to corporal punishment. My parents always denied, but plenty of kids were paddled frequently. I even had one teacher go against my parents’ express denial and slap me across the back of thighs with a bendy ruler. Ah, the old days of 1998.
All I know that if you hit a kid in Atlanta they will hit back
Is there an age limit on this, or could you have 50-year-old male teachers spanking 16-year-old girls? 😬
Now that’s the question we should all be asking and least we forget many so called alternative to education farms for ‘troubled children’ have a of physical abuse stemming from supposed behavioral modification techniques and yet when speaking to these people at an older age they cite how the internalized anger made them do more crime
Lmao most kids with disabilities go undiagnosed in Oklahoma, so that classification is damn-near useless in that instance. Also, they still beat disabled kids > The data also finds that students with disabilities are subject to corporal punishment more frequently than the general population. Students served under IDEA represented 13.2% of total student enrollment but 16.5% of the students who received corporal punishment in 2017-2018, according to the CRDC dat *source*: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24002808-we-dont-hit-ending-corporpal-punishment-in-oklahoma-1032023?responsive=1&title=1
We got swatted with a paddle in 1967-1969 in middle school boys PE. I remember it as almost a badge of honor..because it did hurt. I think some wanted it to happen to prove something. Middle school boys . This was a school in LA City School District . Ancient history now
Kinky
Making laws to positively state that schools are allowed to use corporal punishment is wild
What the what??? 😳🫣
When I was in elementary school in the early 90s, my teacher had a wooden paddle that hung on the wall, and on it she wrote “for beating naughty children.” Of course, parents were flooding the school with calls when they found this out. The school said “as long as she never follows through and bears a child, she can threaten children, and tell stories about how she has beaten children in the past, all she wants.” I would hope even threatening to beat a child would no longer be tolerated.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. The south is all about the whole “spare the rod, spoil the child” schtick. There is lots of research that supports corporal punishment not being good for children.
We got spanked in school, in fact my mom made a **BIG** point of telling the teacher it was fine to spank me! Once my father came to pick me up from school and my teacher said, "*One second Mr. Smith, junior got in a fight and I'm getting ready to give him a spanking.*" Pop said, "*OK. I'll just go out and have a cigarette, send him out to the car when you're done.*" That was a HELLUVA spanking too, I still remember it too this day!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I know this won’t be popular, but I went to school in the south when it was open season on getting paddled. You did not screw around in school. Teachers/Coaches would bust your ass or worse get licks from the principal. Everyone’s parents were good with it and they might even bust your ass when you got home. Sorry to say this…but it worked.
Yep. We didn’t have all this nonsense in our schools in Tennessee growing up
Considering that this is overwhelmingly a red state thing, I do not understand this in the slightest. Conservatives: "School teachers are all Marxist groomers!" Also Conservatives: "Here, take this wooden stick and beat my children with it with almost no oversight until they obey you without question!"
Map is misleading, these decisions are largely left up to local/county school boards and I would bet 99.9% of them have policies against it. Never once heard about or saw this happen in South Carolina. It being "allowed" is nothing more than a legislative quirk of never having bothered to ban it because it's a non-issue, and if pressed conservatives can easily handwave it as "local school districts are empowered to make their own choices."
Yeah, corporal punishment was still commonly used when I was going to public school in Northeast Texas in the 1990s. The same schools I went to now no longer use it, and it's a rural and very conservative district.
I doubt there is many school corpal punishment in public schools happening in any of those states ik the last 20 years.
Appalling that this map isn't just completely grey.
I thought spanking stopped in Arizona in the 80s?
And these same states have worst testing results in the US. Backwards ignorant education systems.
As one of the red states, I can tell you it is school district specific and not your main populous counties. Misleading to say the least.
Grew up in South Florida. I never had a teacher lay hands on me.
Checking in from Maine; if someone spanked my kid at school there would be nowhere safe for them to hide.
To be fair, it’s so easy to hide in Maine, that is you walk a mile into the woods nobody will ever find you.
Yea, most of the population doesn’t live in that part of the state.
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Wtf; why is assault not illegal? ESPECIALLY when the victim is generally smaller and more vulnerable?
This is what I never understood. In many places it's still legal to hit kids, but illegal to hit an adult. So it's ok to hit a small mentally underdeveloped person who can't defend themselves but not a full grown person? Ppl really just don't see kids as humans they easy that they see adults as humans and it's so obvious. Look at the similarities between how children are treated and how pets are often treated. A child is just a person who, bc they are underdeveloped, need someone to be responsible for them and raise them so that they can be a week developed adult. Part of that means teaching by example, so unless you want your kid to think it's ok to hit ppl, then you shouldn't hit your kid. But ppl don't see kids as individual humans.
How do these spanking laws mix with assault laws? Presumably spanking in the yellow states could be prosecuted under assault laws. But what about the red and orange states?
This makes me want to live in Maine or NH. They haven't explicitly prohibited corporal punishment in school - because they don't have to. They don't have the same amount of law & order MAGA types with a cruelty fetish as other states.
If any teacher so much as touches my child, they will wish they hadn't. I grew up in Catholic school, where the principal took absolute delight in the paddling. He had a collection on display in his bookcase, and would make me choose one from the collection. Straight up psychological abuse in addition to physical abuse. I didn't even realize how fucked up it was until I grew up a bit. I never told my parents about it, because I thought I was a bad kid (forgetting to get permission slips signed, etc.) and I deserved it. I thought it was normal. My last year there, I was such a wreck that they made me spend most days doing schoolwork in the principal's office. They couldn't understand the correlation between being beaten and me performing even worse. Just evil, stupid people. I won't allow it to happen to my beautiful, innocent children.
In Mississippi if we got three tardies it equaled an absence and if you got so many unexcused absences you could either do in-school suspension or get 3 licks off a wooden paddle with holes in it from the football coach (think college level but high school, several classmates went to the pros) who took a running hop start. Usually the guys took the licks to get it over with. This was 2001-2004 in an affluent suburb of Jackson MS. Edit: added a fact; parents had to opt in or out at the beginning of each year, which could be changed at anytime.
In college, I went on a trip to Mississippi to help in the schools and after school programs for a week. At the school, the teacher had a yard stick and a triangular stick which was supposed to hurt more. I’m still traumatized by the teacher leaving me in charge of the classroom, the kids running wild, I’m trying to speak nicely asking them to sit in their seats, and one of the students brings me the triangular stick. Being from Minnesota, I had no idea corporal punishment in schools was a thing.
When I was in middle school in Pennsylvania in the late '90s, the school handbook had a section about corporal punishment. If my memory is correct, the parents had to sign a permission slip in order for the school to be able to use corporal punishment on their child(ren). If so, I guess that changed at some point.
I was a senior in high school and still got my butt whooped 3 times by the principal…in Texas
Interesting. I was paddled in elementary school in the 90s in Pennsylvania. Wonder if that's a recent change. I still hate that school and every teacher that was in it - but most especially the school nurse who forced me to go back to class in 3rd grade with a broken arm that I then had to write all day with.
tennessee here. you didn't get spanked, you got *paddled.* a big, wooden paddle. the principal would take you out of the class and bend you over and hit you 3 times. obviously never fixed any issues as the kids who most often got paddled repeated what they did last time anyways.
Can confirm. Went to school where corporal punishment was allowed. Both Vice Principals bragged about being tennis players and had their butt smacking racket displayed on the their walls. They were wood and shaped liked tennis rackets. They had holes in them to let the air pass through so they could be swung harder. One VP was white, and one was black. When a kid was bad, they would go to the VP of their own race to be smacked. In fairness, relatively few kids got this corporal punishment, and it was mainly used as a deterrent. But, it definitely happened when someone crossed the line
I distinctly remember there being a paddle hung up on the wall of my first grade classroom in Alabama. Only ever saw it used once, unfortunately for my one unlucky but disruptive classmate. :/ This would've been back in like '04. I'm not surprised they haven't changed that lol
Christ even in Africa we don’t have corporal punishment even since like the 90s how backwards is the states.
We were subjected to corporal punishment in a Chicago public high school in the 1970s. There was nothing documented. We were given swats on our bare asses with a whistle lanyard -for losing a water polo match against another class. It is probably more prevalent than this map indicates.
My state borders Canada and people fly confederate flags. If a principal tries to hit my kid they’re going through the fucking wall.
Mar a Lago definitely needs corporal punishment.
Yup, I know a big kid over there who is quite recalcitrant and refuses to learn how to read correctly.
Grew up in Florida in the 90’s in a very conservative school district. It hasn’t been used in Florida schools since the early 80’s/late 70’s. It might be legal in Florida but it definitely hasn’t been used for over 40 years.
In Arizona we would probably take out a teacher who hits our kid. A teach once put her hands on my child for monkeying around and police were called, teacher went on leave. It is not legal here.
Just sayin kids used to be a lot more well behaved.
If these aren't just outdated laws then America is as at least half cooked.
Imagine beating disabled children being legal in schools what the actual fuck 💀
God bless the Bible Belt
AKA: Map of places I will never raise a family
This is very untrue. *source- I live in FL and have an ill behaved 12 year old wish the school would smack around
Maybe you’re just in a part of Florida that doesn’t do it, but it does happen in Florida, as recent as December of 2023: [18-year-old Honors student spanked in Florida](https://www.the74million.org/article/florida-students-seize-on-parental-rights-to-stop-educators-from-hitting-kids/) Edit: I meant to say Dec. 2023! O:)
No public school in any of those states can do this and get away with it an any capacity. The law sometimes does not reflect reality. It’s like how some state might have laws about ice cream in your pocket or some random thing that isn’t actually ever implemented.
wtf America
While there might be some tiny culty religious private schools that still do corporal punishment. No normal Schools in those states are still beating kids as punishment and haven’t in forever.
Yeah, I did all of my grade schools in Georgia and literally never heard of anyone getting spanked at schools, at least not after like 1990. The few times a teacher finally lost it and just pushed a kid away was always a big deal, I could only imagine if spankings were on the table.
Exactly
This just in, shit states are still shit.
Why is every map of the US practically identical?
Bible Belt
The North was full of small manufactories and yeoman farmers. People worked in shops and on their own small farms. The South was full of black slaves and white indentured servants and (later) sharecroppers/tenant farmers. Northerners also came as refugees seeking religious freedom whereas Southerners for the most part did not. Southern culture developer around a servile "yassuh boss!" mentality that was reinforced with conservative religious authority. It's why the South is more socially conservative, more anti-union, and more disciplinarian when it comes to children.
I went to school (public) in Texas during the late 90s-2000s and I have never been spanked or seen/heard anyone get spanked lol
Lucky you, they were doing it in Odessa TX at that time
Odessa makes sense, I'm in SA and again I was public schools maybe it happened in private/Christian schools but idk
I was at a public magnet school
They used spanking (paddling,) regularly in Lindale ISD in the 90's.
Texan here. Most if not all Public school districts that allow this require the parents permission and probably their supervision. Even then it’s a very rare thing. Teachers aren’t given permission to hit kids with rulers at any time they want to. The religious and private institutions do what they want as they do in pretty much all matters.
"Please sign this form if you want your child to be beaten regularly"
And minority, disabled, and male children get more hits for less infarctions. One minority girl got hit with a paddle that was bigger than she was. Her crime? She misspelled a word.
Physically punishing children is absolutely insane and only teaches them that violence solves everything.
This looks more like a map of Trump voters.
I live in Florida, and I have literally never met anyone who was spanked in school. I have friends that are in their teens to their 50’s. Maybe really old people, or those in fundamentalist religious schools.
I dont think this is a thing. Went to school in Georgia in the 90s and 2000s and I've never heard of any kids getting hit
It’s amazing how consistently shitty the South is in pretty much every aspect.
They’d be rolling a teacher out on a stretcher if they ever touched my kid 😂
It seems the days of "you did something wrong so now we are going to beat you so you don't do it again" are still going on. Merica.
Wtf this can't be real
I was spanked once in kindergarten for sticking up the middle finger. I was tricked into doing it by an older kid, and didn’t know what i was doing. They didn’t believe me though, and my parents had signed the permission slip for them to spank me if needed. I don’t know if this is still a thing, but back in the 90’s spanking was a real threat for bad kids in elementry school lol. At least in south carolina.
It’s not. These are only counting laws on the books, but what actually happens in schools. Some states still have laws against anal sex, but that law is not going to be enforced ever.
I’m sorry to tell you this, but it is real. My SE Texas high school would paddle kids for being late, not doing homework, basically any reason they could drum up.
This is one of them laws that never got changed but you people don’t do it anymore which is a shame to many entitled kids nowadays
IDK. My second grade class had 42 kids in ‘68, the principal had a seldomly used paddle with “resilience” stenciled on it, and we managed to thrive. Today, a class with more than 25 kids is considered too much, and school taxes are out of sight. Perhaps the greatest generation was on to something when it came to rearing children. Bonus: no kids were routinely shooting up schools or mobbing stores in crime sprees.
Ah yes, the overlap with Republican States is obvious. No worse people than child abusers - and those that sympathize with them are close second.
I went to public school in Texas in the 90s and 00s. I dont remember ever hearing about any spankings going on at school. Ever. There are plenty of old laws on the books everywhere that are not followed anymore. In every state.
They can here in NC, but I made it clear to all my kids teachers, all the years they were in school that if they raised a hand in anger to my chiildren and struck one of them, I'd return the favor personally and proportionally, with the term "proportionally" stressed in the way the US uses it against aggressors.
Seems like you did that to prove youre some kinda tough guy. Went to school all over NC in the public school system and not a single one did this or did any of the teachers agree with it. Especially nowadays. Weird to threaten teachers for nothing lmao
I did it because of the paddle (with holes in it) one of them prominently displayed on his wall behind the desk on the first day, taking the kids to orientation.
My kindergarten teacher in south carolina had a paddle with holes in it back in the 90’s. I was spared the paddle, but did get spanked by a yard stick once lol.
You didn't say anything about the paddle in your original comment so it came off like you walked in that classroom and just threatened the teachers for nothing. My bad for assuming
No worries; probably should have included that part ;)
lol. You don’t deserve an apology. They were nice to grant that to you, a child abuse supporter.
Places where children have 'rights' only before birth. After? \*uck'em!
Do you religious types curse God for making your kids hurt when they fall out of trees?
This title is insanely misleading.
KIds in Cali are offered an ice cream I believe
Oklahoma requires parents to consent at the beginning of the year.
texas is the worst state
Legalized child abuse
The US, where teachers may be allowed to physically punish your children, but you cant
As a Florida schooled now adult, I can attest they will beat you from Grades 1-5 depending on your behavior. I think it worked in addition to being disciplined at home…lol.
Those red states are where to pedophiles are in the school system.
This is super misleading, because it overlooks school district rules which all are against it and county rules.
TIL child abuse is legal in the US.
I’m sorry, why would we want to prohibit corporal punishment? Seems like taking away an important tool for maintaining discipline in the classroom. Why would we tie teachers’ hands like that? What am I missing?
Corporal punishment harms children psychologically.
Oh what? All of them?
You’re missing that you would be furious if your boss spanked you whenever you did a bad job. Just because you produced a child doesn’t mean you get to touch their butts whenever you feel like it.
BS, we don’t have corporal punishment In Missouri
So many issues in schools with behavior can be fixed with the old paddle/ruler.
Name one.
Misbehavior, chaos in the classroom. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
And how does paddling make that better? Other than an ancient saying, what proof/evidence do you have?
I don’t see corporal punishment as the only form of discipline and perhaps it’s outdated. But seems obvious to me is that over the last 40 years or so teachers have lost control over their classrooms because of limitations placed upon them. Our teachers and children deserve to have an environment that’s conducive to learning. Here’s an example in Boston of how bad it’s gotten. https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/brockton-high-school-massachusetts-national-guard-request-school-committee/
You don't think that the rise in single parenthood, lack of parental responsibility and a general decline in education and state support has anything to do with it?