To paddle or not to paddle

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

A recent viral video of a principal in the Hendry County School District paddling a six-year-old in front of the child’s mother has reignited the debate of corporal punishment in Florida, one of 19 states that still allows the use of physical force to curve misbehavior.
The other states that allow corporal punishment are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
The Jefferson County School District does not condone corporal punishment, nor does the Madison County School District. But 19 of Florida’s mostly small and rural school districts, the majority of them in the northern and central part of the state, does allow this type of discipline, as the state leaves it up to districts to decide the matter.
“We do not use corporal punishment,” Jefferson County School Superintendent Eydie Tricquet emailed on Friday, May 21, adding that the board would be revising the policies next year, as some of them were growing outdated.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that corporal punishment was a state issue. And in Florida, since 1989, it’s been left to school districts’ discretion to decide whether they want to prohibit physical discipline, provided that they adopt a written policy to that effect and formulate a program of alternative control.
Parental consent is not necessary for paddling a student, nor must parents be notified or be present during the administration of the punishment.
In districts where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals may strike a child with a wooden or fiberglass paddle, an open hand, or in some cases a ruler. Students may be struck on their bottoms or upper thighs, so long as it leaves no marks.
The April incident in Hendry County is noteworthy because it is reportedly under investigation by the school district, the Clewiston Police Department and the Florida Department of Children and Families. Hendry County is not one of the 19 Florida school districts that allow corporal punishment.
The 19 Florida counties that do allow it are Bradford, Calhoun, Columbia, Dixie, Franklin, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hardee, Highlands, Holmes, Jackson, Lafayette, Levy, Liberty, Suwannee, Union, Wakulla, and Washington.
Per Florida law, corporal punishment is allowed, provided that the principal has approved the practice beforehand. Approval, however, “is not necessary for each specific instance,” according to the statue.
The principal, however, must prepare guidelines for the administration of the punishment, including the types of offenses that qualify for the punishment, the conditions under which the punishment is authorized, and the specific personnel who are authorized to mete out the punishment.
According to an exhaustive report by the Florida US Today Network, consisting of 18 dailies, administrators in the 19 counties doled out 1,034 corporal punishments during the “coronavirus-shortened school year of 2019-20,” with Columbia, Jackson, Washington and Suwannee leading in the number of such punishments
The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) reportedly keeps records of each such incident.
At least one of the school officials cited by the US Today Network report made a connection between corporal punishment and cultural values.
Speaking of his “neck of the woods,” Suwannee County School Superintendent Ted Roush is quoted saying of paddling students that such “might horrify someone in Miami-Dade County, but many parents in our area are going to have a different type of norms and standards.”
Roush also noted that although the number of corporal punishments in Suwannee County might appear high on paper, they were actually “low when compared to the total number of disciplinary referrals,” according to the Florida US Today Network report.
Nor was paddling a first option, “or even necessarily a third option,” Roush is quoted saying.
While proponents of corporal punishment call it another tool in the tool box to correct misbehavior and encourage good behavior, opponents call it an antiquated and barbarous form of punishment that can cause children emotional and psychological harm.
Like on many issues today, parents, educators and the general public are divided on corporal punishment.
Critics call it a relic of the past. They point out that prisons, hospitals, mental institutions and the military ban the practice. They cite the American Academy of Pediatrics, which opposes the practice, saying it may adversely affect a child’s self-image and school achievement and may contribute to unruly and violent behavior.
They cite also the findings of scientific studies that the more children are spanked, the more likely they are to develop antisocial behavior, aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties.
Proponents, on the other hand, see it as a valuable and time proven method for teaching good behavior, let alone that it’s traditional. Many recall having been paddled in their young years and say they are the better for it. They got paddled and they turned out all right, goes the argument. Some may even brag about the many licks they got and withstood. Getting their butts burned taught them right from wrong, they will say. Some even attribute some of society’s ills to the doing away of paddling and other disciplines.
New Jersey was the first state to ban corporal punishment in 1867, followed by Massachusetts more than 100 years later. Then nothing more happened until the 1970s and 1980s, when a large number of states followed suit and banned the practice.
Periodically, state and federal legislators attempt to introduce legislation to ban the practice altogether, but so far these efforts have been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the debate continues, with incidents such as the one in Hendry County reenergizing the issue for both sides.