Fitzsimon File

One of the most troubling debates in the last session of the General Assembly session came over a proposal to ban corporal punishment in schools. North Carolina is one of 21 states that allows adults to hit children at school as a form of discipline.

The state lets each school district set its own policy and 55 school systems have banned corporal punishment, including all the districts in the state's urban areas. But 60 school systems still permit teachers and other adults to strike students and a bill to ban the practice statewide failed in the General Assembly last year.

The ban was defeated despite overwhelming evidence that corporal punishment negatively affects the students who receive it and doesn't change long-term behavior.

A new report from Action for Children finds that state education officials do not monitor how often corporal punishment is administered or even collect the local policies of the school systems that allow it. There is no uniform definition of corporal punishment and the majority of schools that permit teachers, teacher's aides, and administrators to hit a student don't require written consent from a parent before striking a child.

There have been allegations that children of color and children with a disability receive a disproportionate share of the corporal punishment that is administered, but as the report makes clear, the decision by the State Board of Education not to monitor the practice makes those claims impossible to verify or dismiss.

Action for Children contacted State Board Chair Howard Lee about the disturbing lack of accountability and didn't receive an answer until the group also wrote each member of the Board asking for information about the practice.

Lee finally responded that the issue is a local matter, not one for the Board to consider, though the Board hears reports of all sort of statistics from schools, including suspensions, expulsions, and many categories of violent acts by students.  Adults hitting children at school apparently is something the Board is not interested in keeping up with.

Action for Children supports a ban on corporal punishment in schools, but legislative rules prohibit the issue from being considered this summer since it failed last year. The group wants state lawmakers to step in this session and require school districts to report the number of times corporal punishment is used and the race, age, gender, and disability status of the children who receive it.

The report also calls for a standard definition of corporal punishment that permits spanking only with the hand. No more paddles or wooden boards.  It seems the least state lawmakers can do. A real commitment to the safety and well-being of children would mean voting to suspend the rules and reconsidering the ban on corporal punishment.

During last session's debate, supporters of the ban talked about the culture created by corporate punishment administered by authority figures, the bad example it provides for kids, and the research that shows it is not an effective way to discipline children.

That didn't convince the majority of lawmakers, several of whom cited the deterrence value of corporal punishment. The State School Boards Association opposed the ban too, as did groups on the religious right who told lawmakers that spanking was an effective form of discipline.  

This from people who rail against teachers providing comprehensive sex education and led the opposition to legislation to protect students from being bullied at school. It's not ok for teachers to give students information to protect themselves against deadly diseases or to crack down on school bullies, but a teacher's aide hitting a child is fine.

Good for the folks at Action for Children for pointing out the woeful oversight of corporal punishment. We need information about how schools are administering it. But it's time to end the practice altogether and stop letting school personnel hit children when they misbehave.

The most compelling case for the ban that would bring the state into the 21^st century came last session not from child advocates, but from Republican House member Laura Wiley, who spent years teaching children with emotional problems.

Wiley said she never dreamed of striking a student and the thought of taking a board to a child turns her stomach, telling her colleagues that "looking at a 1^st grader and holding a paddle and saying you will behave or else goes back to barbaric days."

Let's hope lawmakers read the Action for Children report and listen to Rep. Wiley. It is time to protect children at school. 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.