A Discussion on The Use of Corporal Punishment on Students in Public Schools

School culture is based on many things, with student-teacher interaction being a major factor. Here in South Carolina, corporal punishment is outlawed. In the classrooms within this state, there is no violence factor when teachers are correcting students. The same does not go for the nineteen states that still use this as a disciplinary tactic. I chose this topic because I had never fathomed that this method was still used today until two years ago when I attended a school in Bonifay, Florida. This school, Bonifay High, was where I obtained first-hand information on the use of corporal punishment on students in public schools which are: differentiating factors between schools that practice this method, aggression in adults from the use of this method as a child, and restrictions being enforced.

Children have a tendency to do things they shouldn’t for reasons such as getting a rise from the class, to test the teacher’s patience, and many more. Whatever the reason, the child has done something in a regional schooling system to the point that the teacher felt necessary to inflict corporal punishment upon the child. the article Probability of Corporal Punishment: Lack of Resources and Vulnerable Students written by Seunghee Han, professor at University of Missouri–Columbia, talks greatly about why some schools that use this method of discipline use it more than others and what factors seem to be causing this statistic. One of his key ideas are ‘corporal punishment in discipline theories’ which talks about schools with a variety of teacher training programs and violence prevention programs used corporal punishment less, but schools higher in ethnic minority rates and special education student rates “ ...had a 2.1 times greater and a 1.8 times greater likelihood of use corporal punishment, after controlling for student's’ problem behavior and school characteristics”. Another key point made in this article by Han was ‘School Practitioners’ Perceptions and Practices of Corporal Punishment’. Though one of his shortest points, it shows the perspectives teachers and principals from multiple studies have on corporal punishment as means of discipline. In shocking conclusion, most educators find this an ineffective means of punishment and others feel greatly that the principal should be the person to inflict any form of corporal punishment. Though he makes many other compelling arguments within his work, these are the key points within his piece that show the differentiating factors between schools that practice this method.

Tamara L. Tail lieu and Douglas A. Brown ridge, authors of states that “...CP [corporal punishment] has been linked to a number of internalizing problem behaviors in children and adolescents”. Their article talks greatly on the negative effects derived from the method of corporal punishment that parents use on these children as adolescents. One key points they make on this topic are ‘physical abuse experienced in childhood’ which goes on to use statistics from a recent study at the University of Michigan that show a pattern in abuse. The study focuses on abusive adults and traces that anger to abuse they experienced as children through corporal punishment to help show the negative long lasting effects from this disciplinary measure.

Lastly, and article reflecting what measures are being taken so that the line of corporal punishment does not cross into abuse. This article, Paddling makes comeback in Florida School written by Alison DeNisco talks about schooling in Florida being allowed to, once again, use corporal punishment within its public schooling system. DeNisco touches key subjects that cover why schools there are allowing this and specifics on what measures they are taking to ensure child safety. In the section of her work that talk what restrictions they are taking, she explains a good bit on how teachers are allowed “the right to strike students on the buttocks with a wooden or fiberglass paddle”. Restrictions that apply to this are: “parents must give written consent once a year, and principals must get verbal permission from parents before actually giving the punishment”. Even then, corporal punishment is restricted to elementary students being punished through this method once a semester per student.

I am pleased to see that with this abusive form of punishment being allowed to be practiced within public schools that it is getting attention it deserves and that people are recognizing the problems that come with this. Seeing now that the necessary precautions are being taken and that school systems are keeping watchful eyes gives me, as well as parents of these students and the students themselves, peace at mind. These articles were very enlightening on this subject and the people who wrote them are well respectable accredited scholars. Though I now see a new side to this form of punishment I hope to never teach at a school that practices it as a means of discipline or in any other fashion.