Texas school district changes policy to allow male employees to paddle female students.
There is so much wrong with this story out of Texas, including parents granting permission for their teenage daughters to be paddled in high school, that I am not sure where to begin.
So, I will let you read this Fort Worth Star-Telegram article and judge for yourselves.
As I say whenever these stories appear — and they appear with disquieting frequency — corporal punishment ought to be banned from every school. Today.
Here is an excerpt of the story by Bill Miller of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
SPRINGTOWN, Texas — School board members voted Monday night to change school district policy to allow opposite gender employees to administer corporal punishment to students, but only with written permission from parents.
Also during the meeting, which included emotional addresses from some parents, the board made it policy that a same-gender school official must be on hand to witness, and parents can only request one paddling per semester.
The vote came after two female students were spanked recently by a male assistant principal at Springtown High School. The paddlings violated a school district policy adopted a year ago that required corporal punishment to be administered by school officials who are the same gender as the students being disciplined.
Superintendent Michael Kelley asked the board to consider changing the policy because not all of the schools have enough females to perform the task. He acknowledged, however, the two recent paddlings were contrary to the policy in place at that time, and for that, he apologized to the girls and their families.
Cathi Watt said she approved the paddling of her daughter, but said that bruises were raised by excessive force. Anna Jorgensen also complained that her daughter was bruised. “I gave consent for my daughter to get a swat, but I didn’t give consent for him to bruise my daughter,” Watt said. “I don’t think a female will raise a bruise because she doesn’t have the strength of a male. “I think this sends a message to boys that it’s OK to hit a girl and it’s OK to bruise a girl. That’s not right.”
Statewide, most major districts don’t allow corporal punishment, but some still use the old-school approach to discipline. Jimmy Dunne, president of the Houston-based People Opposed to Paddling Students, estimates that 75 percent of the school districts in Texas still allow corporal punishment. In an email sent to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dunne describes paddling in schools as “legalized child abuse and must be abolished in Texas schools just as it has been in 31 states.”
“Hitting schoolchildren with boards would be a felony assault charge if done anywhere except at the school,” Dunne said. “Hitting schoolchildren is no more acceptable than hitting your wife or your mother.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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62 comments Add your comment
Logical Dad
September 26th, 2012
2:22 pm
Ole Guy, you are amazing. How, exactly, do the school systems (and 31 states, for that matter) achieve this nirvana that you seek without Government employees beating children? If you are to be believed, beating children is the only mechanism of last resort to “regain that element of class control” (whatever that means).
So, how do you explain the higher juvenile crime rate and lower test scores in the states that allow school employees to beat children? I realize that facts are an anathema to those whom advocate beating children, but I truly want to know how you think the 31 states that have banned the beating of schoolkids manage to far surpass the other 19 (Georgia, Texas, et. al.) in test scores, graduation rate, college education) while the other 19 (those that allow it) have the highest juvenile crime rates and lowest test scores and graduation rates.
I will await your sure-to-be enlightening response.
drew (former teacher)
September 26th, 2012
5:05 pm
Logical Dad…you sure are full of yourself, aren’t you?
You start out by smugly asserting that anyone who disagrees with you on this issue is simply of “limited intelligence”. Must be nice to have the unlimited intelligence you obviously think you possess.
Then you proceed to identify where the “child beating” supporters come from: “homeschoolers, Teabaggers, Militia Members, fans of “Obama 2016,” and FOXNews viewers”. That’s an interesting mix…since you’re so enamored with facts, want to share where you got those facts? Nothing like a broad brush, eh?
Then you go overboard (as in, NOT logical) with this statement: “Those who defend this believe that it is okay for a Government employee to hold down a struggling 6 year-old while another Government employee beats that 6 year-old with a board for not having a parent sign a report card.” Got hyperbole much? Got any facts to support that claim? I thought not.
Then you top things off by suggesting that any administrator who paddles a student is some kind of sexual deviant, “worthy of an investigation”. I think that statement says more about you than any administrator. And I wonder what Freud would make of it?
Archie
September 26th, 2012
5:33 pm
If a student has to be paddled in high school, something is seriously wrong! Not to mention that at that age, in order for it to have an effect, it would have to be administered at a level that would border on dangerous and bruising would be inevitable. I would like to believe that by the time a student reaches high school, they would have developed some degree of self-control but I know that’s utopia! Chronic disruptive behavior problems need to be removed from the regular ed. environment so that the students who are there to learn can learn.
Logical Dad
September 26th, 2012
5:34 pm
Thanks for playing Drew. That scenario happened to me as six year old (so, yeah, I’m biased – sue me.) As far as worthy of investigation – that is what I did for a living. Criminal investigations. I’ve seen it time and time again. Deny it all you want. Reality and facts are not on your side. Fantasize much?
Ole Guy
September 26th, 2012
6:12 pm
OK, Dad, now “listen up”, ’cause I’m only going to impart some common sense approaches which may not coincide with the neately-packaged stats you have presented. The facts remain: college graduation rates…not attendance; a well-trained monkey can get into college…are at an all-time low. Meanwhile, inasmuch as “growth industries” within this fine Country were, at one point in our illustrius past, in technology, ie the space race of mid-20th century, the birth of the electronic toys which have become an ingrained component in contemporary civilization, medical advancements…yada yada yada…we have, in the last 25 years or so, lost much/far far too much of our global eminence; our competitiveness on the global stage of business and commerce. Meanwhile, the new “growth industries” would appear to be in corrections/penal venues. Whereas the presence of youth within the “big peoples’” court systems was, at one point, virtually unknown, we now must have, in the hallowed halls of America’s high schools, police presents, euphamistically cloaked as “resource officers”…at some point in time, the paddle-wielding teacher/principal/football coach was replaced with…your good friend the police man. Now what the hell does THAT say about a complete loss of control within the schools?
Dad, I can appreciate a few sad realities here: 1) these problem areas within the schools, as serious and far-reaching as they are, seem to command only one-line replys and superflous remarks (…awaiting your sure to be enlightening response…) indicative of the short-sighted and, in all frankness, moronic thought which goes into replys such as that which you seem to embrace.
Once again, Dad, I invite you to suggest a “more humane” means of acquiring/re-acquiring full and undivided student attention toward basic rules of social discourse (no mention, at this juncture, on academic performance, simply learning how to act right. It remains no secret that we see, daily, all throughout the fabric of society, such anti-social behavior which can surely be traced to a “do-as-you-damn-well-please-with-absolutely-no-fear-of-consequence” atmosphere within the halls of public education.
When you have suggested a more-appropriate means by which the teachers of America might re-gain control of their classrooms so that generations might learn the simple act of appropriate discourse…RESPONSIBLE discourse, I am quite certain the readership will find YOUR remarks…enlightening.
Logical Dad
September 26th, 2012
6:25 pm
Uh, Ole Guy, do you speak English? I asked you how schools that do not beat kids manage to maintain control AND teach the kids. You did not answer. Thus, I will assume that your answer to this question (like, I’m guessing, your answer to most questions) is “I don’t know, but I know I’m right.” Isn’t it past your bedtime? Have a nice glass of Ovaltine, watch “Hannity,” and dream about Ronald Reagan. ‘night ‘night, cowboy.
drew (former teacher)
September 26th, 2012
9:27 pm
Logical Dad…I ask for facts related your fantasy about the six-year beaten with a board by government employees, and it turns out that YOU PERSONALLY experienced this trauma. How convenient!
And when I challenge your leap from “administrator/paddler” to “sexual deviant”, it turns out that criminal investigations are what you “did for a living”! Again, how convenient! Please do tell me how many school paddlers you’ve arrested on sex charges. Nevermind…I’m sure you’ve PERSONALLY arrested dozens of these administrative perverts.
I guess the trauma you endured at the hands of those evil, abusive, “government employees” has scarred you pretty badly, so badly in fact, that you really should just stfup…by your own admission, you’re biased about this issue.
Ben
September 27th, 2012
9:11 am
Paddling works and it should be used more often. Fortunately it’s legal in Georgia but not used within the metro Atlanta school systems due to lawsuit threats that the school systems don’t want to confront. I got paddled when I stepped out of line and it worked. Children should be paddled to force disciplinary compliance with the rules. Otherwise the option is suspension and calling the parent in to pick the troublemaker up from school.
Good job and way to go Texas!!
Logical Dad
September 27th, 2012
10:29 am
Sorry, Drew, the truth has a tendency to make you look foolish. Each blog Maureen posts about this issue gets input from me because of my experience as an abused student as well as my involvement in law enforcement. I have noted my bona fides on this blog many, many times. Sorry you’re just now learning. I will gladly STFU because you obviously have issues that should be dealt with by a professional.
Prof
September 27th, 2012
2:20 pm
@ Logical Dad and drew (former teacher): I don’t mean to get into the middle of a cream-pie fight here, but this is a blog and both of you choose to be anonymous. There’s no way for anyone to check out personal claims, only public links to public information. I myself have noticed how remarkable it is that so many of the bloggers on here are Georgia Tech graduates with high-level careers in engineering, or parents of an extraordinarily gifted child with SAT scores in the stratosphere. Why should anyone take anyone’s word for anything on here?
As to whether I am actually a professor of higher education or not, you’ll have to judge from my vocabulary, general level of discourse, knowledge of fields displayed, etc. (Though I swear I am, honestly!)
And now I’ll get out of the way.
Ole Guy
September 27th, 2012
2:30 pm
Dad, you and the readership may remember the movie Forrest Gump. Like many colorful characters, we often see a bit of ourselves in the characters’ behaviors and personalities. Recall, if you will, the scene at the Washington Mall (an event which occured while I was stationed in the area). Of course, the movie’s script takes more than a little license in a departure from what happened; after our hero, Private Gump, is ushered to the podium, he is asked to speak on a topic, the War in Vietnam, on which his views are…somewhat scattered and, quite possibly, ladden with images of the “world of Private Gump”. Though 99.999% of his utterings are not actually heard by the throngs, his final words on the topic mirror my final input on a subject which, like that terrible period, represent nothing short of social decay and wasted lives…”THAT’S ALL I’VE GOT TO SAY ABOUT THAT”.
While, during the long years of debacle, there was no shortage of “experts” who knew the answers, a National resource, my generation, was caught in the middle.
Today, we are witnessing yet another debacle in which, again, there is no shortage of “experts”, yet another generation; another National resource, is letterally being led to slaughter…the slaughter of lives of despiration.
While kids grow up feeling (despite the stormy seas of social and educational decline) “special” in that the simple rules of behavior have no application in their lives, the “experts”, like bad weather in aviation, are always nearby, ready to confuse havoc with help.
Dad, while I am no fan of personal attacks, your inputs beg “special attention”. In reading some of your views, I am convinced that YOU, your “cutsie bootsy” replies to any-and-all issues overwhich you hold disagreement, and your smug posture on your self-annointment are all root causes of just why kids are so…screwed up.
THAT’S ALL I’VE GOT TO SAY ABOUT THAT.
William Porter
September 28th, 2012
7:41 pm
I’ll speak from both sides of the paddle. I was paddled more than several times in Junior High and High School. Was it effective? Who knows. I’m still alive, have children, a master’s degree, and haven’t been in jail ever. My two sons: both paddled in school, were disciplined at home when necessary with my belt, no double jeopardy existed. One is a medical technologist of some sort; the other is an accountant. Both have families. If a female is deserving of a paddling – because she violated the same rule as a boy – then a female administrator should have been called in to do the duty with the male administrator out of sight. However if it was 3 swats for the boys; then it should be 3 swats for the girl also. The paddling will correct the errant behavior believe me.