It's Nothing But Child Abuse

No surprise really that corporal punishment in schools has a negative effect on children.

I don't know how beating a kid up makes him or her a better student. All it does is teach that "might makes right."

In fact, I don't even understand how it can still be legal in any schools considering all of the liability issues involved.

Meece analyzed results from two groups of 32 children. In the group that wasn't paddled, Meece found that three students did not graduate high school or receive a GED by age 25. Among those who were paddled, nine did not graduate within that time frame.

Those results, as well as academic research pointing to other dangers of corporal punishment, have Meece and Janetta Fleming Bradley, a UTC associate professor of education, calling for an end of the practice in public schools.

While research in the field is relatively lacking, the professors say corporal punishment increases aggressive, hostile and abusive behavior in students.

"In no other setting can we hit people and get away with it," Bradley said. "Not in mental institutions, not in prisons and not in hospitals. Only in schools."

Teachers and other educational staff are mandated reporters when it comes to child abuse, yet in some 19 states they are allowed to INFLICT it? That is crazy.

More Education Wars

I wish teachers in Nevada could appeal to real courts--not fraudulent arbitrators--when there is an unfair disciplinary action.

This guy won, and it sounds like the principal, as well as the district, was using every excuse in the book to get rid of an older, long-time employee.

Snip:

But five years later, Mr. Storman, 57, is embroiled in a legal dispute over allegations that he committed corporal punishment. A 27-year veteran of the school system, Mr. Storman denies hitting the student and is seeking to erase an unsatisfactory rating that a principal gave him. The Department of Education, however, has defended the rating, arguing that Mr. Storman did indeed touch the student, who was in the fifth grade.

The case shows the difficulties teachers can face in disputing the ratings they receive each year from principals. The ratings can determine whether they are eligible for lucrative teaching opportunities outside of the normal school year. The case also sheds light on the fine lines of interpretation surrounding the question of corporal punishment: Did Mr. Storman’s paper brush against the student? If so, was that intentional, and did it rise to the level of corporal punishment?

Teachers who receive unsatisfactory ratings are allowed to appeal to a court, and this month a judge in Manhattan ruled in Mr. Storman’s favor, saying she did not find evidence of corporal punishment. The unsatisfactory rating, wrote the judge, Acting Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich, “shocks the conscience, was arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”

How true. As I said, Storman is one of the lucky, lucky few teachers or counselors to win and still be employed.