On March 6, 2010, the following was emailed to Congressman Jim Himes and Senators Joe Lieberman and Chris Dodd of Connecticut.
I am writing to you at this time because I am deeply concerned about the mistreatment of schoolchildren in 20 of our United States. Although Connecticut is not one of the 20 states, this issue should concern every American.
I am trying to encourage federal legislation that would make it illegal for schoolchildren in both public and private school settings to be assaulted and battered as part of routine discipline.
Having lived in the Northeast all my life, I remember my first trip to the South to begin my freshman year at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1963. I spent my first night in a segregated motel in Athens, Georgia. After dinner at a segregated restaurant, I witnessed a street demonstration by the Ku Klux Klan protesting the hiring of a Black woman at the Singer Sewing Center. That was the year Vivian Malone, a Black student, enrolled at the University of Alabama in spite of the lunatic protestations of Governor George Wallace, and the National Guard had to be stationed on campus to keep the peace. Those were troubled times, and Tuscaloosa was a troubled place. It was an eye-opening experience for a Yankee!
It took America almost 100 years after the ratification of the Declaration of Independence to abolish slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment to our Constitution. And, as I discovered in my student days in the 1960s, it was impossible to disentangle racial violence from its source. Clearly, bad habits die hard.
This brings me to another legacy of slavery: the violent punishment of schoolchildren by teachers and school administrators, better known as "paddling."
When I tell people that 20 states legally sanction physical punishment of schoolchildren, they look at me in disbelief. When I tell them approximately 1/4 million beatings of American schoolchildren occur annually, and that children are often bruised and sometimes injured, shock sets in.
Anyone who doubts that this practice is a direct hand-me-down from plantation days should see www.nospank.net/slavish2.pdf. Notice that the paddle in the illustration is prototypical of ones used in paddling schools today. Furthermore, it should come as no surprise to anyone that a map of the top ten paddling states and a map of the top ten lynching states are a close match. Seven states appear on both maps. See maps at www.nospank.net/classrm.htm#2maps.
The 20 states that still legally permit corporal punishment in schools are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
According to Human Rights Watch/ACLU, the 10 states that paddled the most students during the 2006-07 school year were:
.1. Texas . . . . . . 49,197 paddlings
.2. Mississippi . . . 38,131 paddlings
.3. Alabama . . . . 33,716 paddlings
.4. Arkansas . . . . 22,314 paddlings
.5. Georgia . . . . . 18,249 paddlings
.6. Tennessee . . . 14,868 paddlings
.7. Oklahoma . . . 14,828 paddlings
.8. Louisiana . . . 11,080 paddlings
.9. Florida . . . . . . 7,185 paddlings
10. Missouri . . . . . 5,129 paddlings
The first state to abolish corporal punishment in public schools was New Jersey in 1867 — 143 years ago! California became the 9th paddle-free state in 1987. And most recently, on October 15th 2009, Ohio became the 30th state to protect schoolchildren.
The following countries prohibit corporal punishment in schools: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Congo, Republic of, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, DR Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Pitcairn Island, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Helena, San Marino, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Spitzbergen, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, TFYR Macedonia, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen and Zambia.
If I haven't convinced you that now is the time for the United States to join the rest of the civilized world by protecting schoolchildren, I urge you to become more fully informed about this issue by visiting www.nospank.net (Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education), www.stophitting.com (Center for Effective Discipline) and www.thehittingstopshere.com (The Hitting Stops Here!). And please read Plain Talk about Spanking at www.nospank.net/pt2009.htm or email me at goldfield@nospank.net for a printed copy. I will send you the booklet via First-Class mail.
To further familiarize yourself with this issue, I strongly recommend Report on Physical Punishment in the US: What Research Tells Us About Its Effects on Children [May 2009] by Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Ph.D. This report was published and developed in conjunction with:
Phoenix Children's Hospital
Child Abuse Prevention
1919 East Thomas Road, Suite 2211C
Phoenix, AZ 85016
(602) 546-3356.
You can find a PDF for this 57 page scientific document at: ww.phoenixchildrens.com/PDFs/principles_and_practices-of_effective_discipline.pdf.
Dr. Gershoff is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In her current research, she focuses on the impact of violence by parents and teachers on children's mental health and academic achievement. A hard copy of the Report can be obtained by contacting:
Center for Effective Discipline
155 W. Main St. #1603
Columbus, Ohio 43215
I encourage you to examine punitive child rearing traditions with the same critical eye that one might use to consider the practice of stoning adulterers or cutting off the hands of thieves. This is the 21st century. The 20 states that still use corporal punishment as discipline in schools need to disarm and start treating children with kindness and respect. Please make this issue a priority and initiate legislation to make corporal punishment of schoolchildren a federal crime.
I look forward to hearing your comments and position on this most critical issue in America.
Michael Goldfield
Michael Goldfield
