Disabled Students Spanked More

[Rman]

Disabled Students Are Spanked More

By SAM DILLON
More than 200,000 schoolchildren are paddled, spanked or subjected to other physical punishment each year, and disabled students get a disproportionate share of the treatment, according to a new study.

Most states prohibit corporal punishment in public schools, but 20 do not. The two watchdog groups that collaborated on the report, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, are urging federal and state lawmakers to extend the ban nationwide and enact an immediate moratorium on physical punishment of students with disabilities.

“Corporal punishment is just not an effective method of punishment, especially for disabled children, who may not even understand why they’re being hit,” said Alice Farmer, who wrote the report.

The report, based on federal Department of Education data, said that of the 223,190 public school students nationwide who were paddled during the 2006-7 school year, at least 41,972, or about 19 percent, were students with disabilities, who make up 14 percent of all students.

As recently as the 1970s, only two states had laws banning corporal punishment, but 28 others have since passed similar legislation. Corporal punishment is still permitted in some form in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

The most recent state to enact a ban was Ohio, where Gov. Ted Strickland last month signed into law a measure including a such a prohibition.

In states that do not have bans, some school districts do. In Louisiana, about 56 districts allow corporal punishment, while about 14 prohibit it. Last month the Education Committee of the Louisiana Legislature voted 8 to 6 to reject a proposed ban.

Roy McCoy, principal of Beekman Junior High School in Bastrop, La., testified against the bill. Classroom discipline has been an increasing problem, Mr. McCoy told lawmakers. In an interview, he said paddling is no cure-all, “but when other means of correcting behavior have failed to produce the desired improvement, it could be a viable option.”

“My view is that this should be a decision made by each local school board,” Mr. McCoy said.

Among the cases cited in the report was that of a 6-year-old, first-grade boy with autism, who was paddled at his Mississippi elementary school. An assistant principal who the report described as weighing 300 pounds “picked up an inch-thick paddle and paddled him” on the buttocks, the report said.

“It just devastated him,” the report cited the boy’s grandmother as saying. “When a child with autism has something like that happen, they don’t forget it. It’s always fresh in their minds.”

Alan Richard, a former journalist who is the spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board, said he once surveyed attitudes in Southern districts.

“One principal said, ‘I was whipped as a child, so its fine with me,’ ” Mr. Richard recalled. “Others said, ‘We don’t do that anymore.’ It varied by community.”

Jeez....

[demi]

Can't blame em

[Bildi]

Non-disabled children should be spanked more.

[drew]

well its not like you can just tell them to sit in the corner, they do that all day anyway

[brawndolicious]

I don't support corporal punishment but does 14% getting spanked 19% really deserve an article in a mainstream newspaper?

I mean, there might be a trend that you could notice it if you were a sociologist or somebody with a lot of experience analyzing social statistics, but those people already know more about the subject and the methodology than the reporter.

Joe blow hears "abuse" and "disabled" in the same sentence and he's already made his decision.

[Van Cruncheon]

welcome to TRIG PALIN'S FUTURE

shame the OBAMA DEATH PANEL wasn't there to spare him a decade-plus of ptsd-inducing corporal punishment

[Great Rumbler]

"Students with disabilities" is such an incredibly vague statement.

[Brehvolution]

Pussies.
I was spanked by the principal in elementary school numerous times for such evil acts as saying the school raisins looked like rabbit turds among other things too heinous to say on the internet.

The lack of corporal punishment is why kids are such entitled douchebags today. There is no fear of discipline.

[Great Rumbler]

The lack of corporal punishment is why kids are such entitled douchebags today.

That, and the whole "I'm a perfect little angel, my mommy says so" that's plaguing schools these days.

[Tauntaun]

Well maybe they should try not being disabled, have you thought about that?