Corpun file 26441 at www.corpun.com
The Daily Sentinel, Nacogdoches, Texas, 7 August 2016
Nacogdoches ISD
Officials tweak discipline policy
NISD parents must say no to paddling
By Paul Bryant
(extract)
A paperwork change will require Nacogdoches ISD parents to consent twice -- once in writing and later by phone -- before their children are paddled.
"There's a simple reason for that change from opting in to opting out," school board President Steve Green said. "Before, we would have to send the forms home and rely on kids to get them back to us. Many times, they were lost or never brought back. When you tell people they have to opt out, I promise you that people against it are going to make sure it gets back to campus."
Parents will be called
The opt-out forms for corporal punishment will be sent home with the student handbook and student code of conduct. Even if they are not returned, parents will be called before their children are paddled.
"A strong, structured discipline program is so important," Interim Superintendent Sandra Dowdy said.
[...]
© Copyright 2016, The Daily Sentinel, Nacogdoches, TX
Corpun file 26443 at www.corpun.com
Odessa American, Texas, 10 August 2016
Board eyes teaching program, other agreements
(extracts)
Several memorandums of understanding from those for early college high schools to a new teacher program were discussed by the Ector County Independent School District Board of Trustees during their work study meeting Tuesday.
[...]
The board reviewed the 2016-17 Student Code of Conduct & Student Handbook. [Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Roy] Garcia said one big change was that corporal punishment is now prohibited at ECISD.
Following [Superintendent Tom] Crowe's recommendation, the school board voted in June to do away with corporal punishment, the recap said.
[...]
© Copyright 2016, Odessa American, Odessa, TX.
Corpun file 26445 at www.corpun.com
MSN News, 24 August 2016
In some US schools, resistance to ending corporal punishment
By Carolyn Thompson
Associated Press
© The Associated Press In this July 22, 2016 photo, Kaley Zacher poses for a portrait with her mother Kimberly, in Dublin, Ga. Zacher gave permission for Kaley to be paddled twice at Southwest Laurens Elementary School, Ga. Although the use of corporal punishment in American schools has declined in recent decades, paddling is still on the books in 19 states, despite calls from the U.S. Education Department to curb punitive disciplinary measures, which has been shown to affect minority and disabled students disproportionately. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Two licks with a wooden paddle in the principal's office was the price 11-year-old Kaley Zacher, of Dexter, Georgia, paid for ignoring warnings about falling behind in her school work.
Rules are rules, said her mother, Kimberly Zacher, so why shouldn't the punishment be the same as at home when her daughter falls out of line?
"What we instill in our children is if you break the rules, there's a punishment that you have to suffer the consequences for," she said. "You don't want to give two sets of rules."
Although corporal punishment in American schools has declined in recent decades, paddling is still on the books in 19 states despite calls from the U.S. Education Department to curb punitive discipline, which has been shown to affect minority and disabled students disproportionately.
"We know that the use of corporal punishment tends to be intertwined with other factors, such as a child's race or disability status," Deputy Assistant Secretary Tanya Clay House said in a statement Tuesday.
Black children were more than twice as likely to be corporally punished than white children, and nearly eight times more likely to be corporally punished than Hispanic children, the Children's Defense Fund said in a 2014 report that analyzed 2009-10 Education Department data.
But in corners of the country where it remains deeply woven in culture and tradition, some school administrators say corporal punishment has broad support from parents, that it preserves learning time that would be lost to a suspension, and that they see little need to give up a practice that dates back generations.
"Corporal punishment is an immediate consequence to an action, and there's no down time. ... It's really pretty effective," said Camille Wright, a superintendent in Enterprise, Alabama, part of the mostly southern swath of states where paddling is still allowed.
The U.S. Education Department, whose statistics show that more than 100,000 students are subjected to corporal punishment annually, has been urging schools through its "ReThink Discipline" initiative to create safe and supportive climates that emphasize positive behavior.
"The Department of Education strongly believes that states have the power to change," House said.
Several medical and human rights groups have called for an end to a practice criticized as ineffective and potentially harmful.
"You want to keep kids in the classroom, but to suggest that the only way to keep them in is to beat them with a stick is ludicrous," said Dennis Parker, director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. The ACLU teamed with Human Rights Watch for a 2009 report that called for banning corporal punishment in schools, saying things like peer courts, conflict resolution programs and character education were better approaches.
"Paddling can cause pain, humiliation, and in some cases deep bruising or other lasting physical or mental injury," the report said.
Debate spiked in April after a mother in Georgia aired video of a Jasper County school official holding her crying kindergartner as he was about to be paddled and said she regretted giving the school permission to discipline him that way.
In her Alabama district, Wright said few parents sign an opt-out form that is sent home each year, a practice common in schools that paddle. Her district, like others, also phones parents for permission before administering up to three swats, even if they've already granted blanket consent, and requires another administrator as a witness.
There is a cultural element in support for the practice, notably among black parents in the rural South, Parker said.
"When we did our report it was sometimes difficult, particularly in southern states, to get support from communities of color for getting rid of corporal punishment. Some of that is a reflection of ... 'This is what I'm used to. This worked for me,'" he said.
Wright said her district nevertheless is slowly moving away from corporal punishment for things like cursing a teacher or leaving without permission, even though there is little opposition.
Many states have outlawed corporal punishment in schools, but it remains legal in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
Kaley Zacher said the paddling she received from her vice principal last year after missing several assignments and receiving numerous warnings at Southwest Laurens Elementary School in Rentz, Georgia, left her shaken.
"I was sad and still scared and shaking, and I was crying a little," she said. "I was just, 'Suck it up and continue class.'"
But did she get better about her work?
Yes, her mom said. "She talked about it for a couple of weeks, and she said she didn't want that to happen again."
Corpun file 26455 at www.corpun.com
Marietta Daily Journal, Georgia, 24 August 2016
Paulding school board appoints new member, begins work toward career academy
By Tom Spigolon
(extracts)
The Paulding County School Board on Tuesday decided not to wait until January to have a future member begin his job.
Board members voted to appoint Glen Albright to the board's vacant District 4 seat to replace Richard Manous, who resigned Aug. 9 after moving outside his district.
[...]
At the same meeting, the board voted to rescind its policy allowing corporal punishment -- typically paddling or spanking -- of students.
Superintendent Cliff Cole said he made the recommendation to end the policy because the Paulding school district had not used corporal punishment to discipline students for a number of years. Human Resources director Clark Maggart said his research found that 46 Georgia school districts -- mostly in south Georgia -- still employ corporal punishment.
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