Corpun file 26722 at www.corpun.com
News & Observer, Raleigh, N. Carolina, 15 August 2018
Parents wanted these NC schools to keep spanking their kids. But it's stopping anyway.
By Abbie Bennett
Last year, two of North Carolina's counties allowed schools to use corporal punishment -- physical pain as a disciplinary measure -- on students.
As of Aug. 14, that number was down to one county. At a Tuesday meeting of the Robeson County Board of Education, board members voted narrowly (6-5) to end the practice of corporal punishment, or spanking, as first reported by Scott Bigelow of The Robesonian.
More than 100 miles west is Graham County in the mountains of North Carolina, the only county continuing the practice of intentional infliction of physical pain upon the body of a student as a disciplinary measure, according to North Carolina state statute.
School corporal punishment is legal in 19 states, many of them in the south. Those states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.
Corporal punishment in North Carolina
In 2013, the North Carolina State Board of Education came out against spanking and paddling students and encouraged local school systems to end the punishments. But North Carolina law left it up to individual school systems to decide.
How a school strikes a student is not outlined in state law.
State statute includes guidelines and limitations on corporal punishment:
-- Corporal punishment cannot be administered in a classroom with other students present;
-- Only an agent of the state -- a teacher, principal or assistant principal -- can administer corporal punishment and must do so in the presence of someone else in those categories;
-- The school must notify the student's parent that corporal punishment has been administered and the person who administered the punishment must provide a written explanation of why, and name the witness who was present;
-- The school must keep a record of each instance of corporal punishment;
-- Excessive force, or force that causes injury to the student that requires medical attention beyond simple first aid, is prohibited;
-- If a parent does not want a school to use physical pain to discipline their child, the parent must fill out a form at the beginning of the school year. If the form is not completed, the school is allowed to hit the student.
The form shall advise the parent or guardian that the student may be subject to suspension, among other possible punishments, for offenses that would otherwise not require suspension if corporal punishment were available, North Carolina law states.
Still an active form of punishment
Corporal punishment was not just a rule still on the books in Robeson and Graham counties.
Students were actively being spanked, paddled and otherwise struck as of last school year.
There were 75 uses of corporal punishment in North Carolina in 2016-17, according to the most recently available report from the Department of Public Instruction.
The state saw a 2.7 percent increase from the previous year in the number of students struck by a school employee.
Corporal punishment was used 41 times in Robeson County and 34 times in Graham County during the 2016-17 school year, state records show.
Of the 75 times schools used corporal punishment in 2016-17:
-- 66 were male students and 9 were female students.
-- Most students struck were Native American (41), followed by white students (30), and then black (2) and Hispanic students (2).
By far most students in Robeson and Graham county schools are white and American Indian, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Robeson County is home to the Lumbee tribe.
-- Most students were in fourth grade, followed by 11th and 12th grade. But there were at least two incidents of corporal punishment at every grade level.
-- 10 -- more than 13 percent -- were students with disabilities.
The leading causes of students being struck were: leaving/skipping school (24 students), insubordination (16) and "aggressive behavior" (11). Other causes included: disruptive behavior, disorderly conduct, disrespect of staff and "other."
State law on corporal punishment does not define causes such as insubordination or disrespect.
The number of students punished corporally has fallen dramatically. In the 2008-09 school year, 679 students were physically punished and that number has continued to steadily decline statewide.
The American Psychological Association opposes corporal punishment in schools on the grounds that decades of research show children punished with physical violence learn to potentially use it against others and that it "instills hostility, rage and a sense of powerlessness without reducing undesirable behavior."
Parents want to continue spanking
The number of students struck in Robeson County fell to 28 students in the 2017-18 school year, The Robesonian reported. All were Native American students at two elementary schools.
Members of one of the school's parent-teacher organization spoke against repealing the ability to strike students.
"At a recent meeting, we polled parents," Eric Freeman, president of the Prospect Elementary School PTO said at the board of education meeting on Tuesday, according to The Robesonian. "One hundred parents asked that the policy not be changed, and zero voted to stop spanking."
Freeman did not say how many of the school's parents were present at that meeting.
School board member Brenda Fairley-Ferebee said it is the school's job to educate and a parent's job to discipline, The Robesonian reported.
"If they do that, there would not be problems in school," she said.
A 'last resort'
Robeson County's student handbook says that corporal punishment is a "last resort" and should only be employed "in cases where other means of securing cooperation from the student have failed."
Students are to be afforded "minimal due process" in cases of corporal punishment, including confronting the student and allowing the student to verbally defend themselves when accused.
The school system also requires that a student be warned before they are struck.
Robeson County's handbook says that students may only be struck "upon the buttocks."
"Slapping or striking a child about the head or face is strictly forbidden, as is the vigorous shaking of a child by the shoulders," the handbook says.
Corpun file 26719 at www.corpun.com
The Nashville Tennesseean, 16 August 2018
Robertson County Schools bans spanking, corporal punishment
By Nicole Young
Nashville Tennesseean
There will be no more spanking or paddling in Robertson County Schools.
The school board unanimously approved a new policy that bans corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure in all district schools on second and final reading during its regular meeting earlier this week.
Director of Schools Chris Causey will be responsible for developing and implementing in-service training for teachers and staff in the use of alternative, positive measures of discipline, the district's new policy reads.
"There are alternatives," Causey said in July, when the board was considering the policy on first reading. "Everything from statistics from our principals and research out there (points to the inefficiency of corporal punishment). It does not lead to the cessation of specific behavior."
'Varying opinions' on spanking
In years past, principals at each school would be given a list of possible punishments and could choose which punishment best fit the situation. Essentially that isn't changing, Causey said. He told board members that corporal punishment would simply be eliminated as an option on the list.
The district is not alone in its pursuit to eliminate corporal punishment.
Last month, Cheatham County Schools took its first steps towards banning the practice, calling it outdated and antiquated. A second and final reading is scheduled for next month.
Bans are already on the books in several of Robertson County's neighboring districts, including Davidson, Montgomery and Sumner County Schools, according to data from the State Comptroller's Office.
"This is always a topic that people have varying opinions on," Robertson County Schools Assistant Director Stephanie Mason told the board. "But it is rarely used in our district now as is."
This week, Mason presented data from the 2017-18 school year to further illustrate that point.
"There were six incidents where corporal punishment was used as a disciplinary measure and that involved four different schools," she told board members. No further information was presented about the incidents or where they occurred, and board members did not discuss the measure before their unanimous vote.
'Effective' punishment
That was not the case in July when two board members, Scott Rice and Chairman Jeff White, admitted to being on the receiving end of corporal punishment during their school days.
"It was effective," Rice said, earning an agreement from White, who noted that one of his former principals "got me only once and that's all it took."
In a statement issued after the vote, the district noted that its policy change reflects both a trend in many states to eliminate corporal punishment and the restrictions recently placed on the practice by the Tennessee State Legislature.
Gov. Haslam signed a bill banning corporal punishment against students with disabilities on May 3, and it went into effect on July 1.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, has, for years, been leading a charge to ban all corporal punishment in the state, but he refocused his efforts on students with disabilities after a state Comptroller report found that school districts with corporal punishment use it at a higher rate against students with individualized education plans.
Those students could have either a physical or mental disability, or could be considered gifted.
Report: most TN schools allow it
In Tennessee, more than 109 school districts of 148 have board policies allowing corporal punishment, defined as "paddling, spanking, or other forms of physical punishment imposed on a student," according to the Comptroller report, released in March.
Most of the school districts in counties around Nashville have banned corporal punishment, but the most notable exception to this rule is Rutherford County Schools, which still allows the practice, the report found.
Murfreesboro City Schools has banned it.
In Wilson County, also home to two separate school districts, corporal punishment is permitted in the Lebanon Special School District and banned in Wilson County Schools, the report noted.
Nationwide, most states have banned corporal punishment.
However, there are 23 states that either expressly permit in-school corporal punishment or where no state law prohibits it, according to the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments.
Tennessee is among the states that expressly permit the practice. Others are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming.
Laws are vague in Colorado, New Hampshire and South Dakota, detailing the use of "reasonable and appropriate physical intervention or force" in dealing with disruptive students. And, no relevant laws or regulations regarding corporal punishment in schools could be found in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Maine.
© Copyright Gannett 2018
Corpun file 26723 at www.corpun.com
Newport Independent, Arkansas, 22 August 2018
Newport School District Annual Report
By Amanda Reynolds
Newport Independent
(Extracts)
The Newport Special School District held a special meeting on Tuesday, August 21st before the regular monthly meeting. The special meeting was the Annual Report to the Public presented by the Superintendent Dr. Larry Bennett. The meeting began at 6 pm with a Call to Order by President Dennis Haigwood, followed by prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
[...]
Newport School District employs 116 licensed employees and 59 classified employees. All custodial and food service is outsourced. The beginning teacher salary is $32,500.00 ($911.34 each pay period). 50 percent of parents agreed to the use of corporal punishment. Laws were passed that students in grades kindergarten through 5th grade cannot be suspended.
[...]
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