{"id":5441,"date":"2012-03-12T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=5441"},"modified":"2012-09-05T21:13:17","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T01:13:17","slug":"why-florida-schools-want-the-right-to-paddle-misbehaving-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/03\/12\/why-florida-schools-want-the-right-to-paddle-misbehaving-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Florida Schools Want the Right to Paddle Misbehaving Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sarah \/ Gonzalez<\/p>

The wooden paddle sits on the principal's desk at Sneads High School in Jackson County, Fla.<\/p><\/div>\n

Spanking in school may seem like a relic of the past.<\/p>\n

But in Florida, students from preschoolers to high school seniors are still being paddled by teachers and principals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In parts of the state, mostly in the rural north, getting spanked at school, on your butt, with a wooden or fiberglass board, is just part of being a misbehaving student.<\/p>\n

“I been getting them since about first grade,\u201d said Lucas Mixon, now a junior at Holmes County High School in Bonifay, Fla.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just regular. They tell you to put your hands up on the desk and how many swats you\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

Florida\u00a0is one of 19 states\u00a0<\/a>that still allow public schools to paddle, according to the Center for Effective Discipline.<\/p>\n

The most recent data show that 3,661 students were spanked in 2010, according to the Florida Department of Education.<\/p>\n

Most school districts in Florida have opted out of using corporal punishment. But almost all counties in rural north Florida have policies to allow schools to paddle students.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Ari Porth, a Democrat, sponsored a bill to ban school corporal punishment statewide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said where students live should not determine whether they get spanked at school.<\/p>\n

\n

“I got my butt beat and I know what’s right and wrong. And my children are going to know what’s right and wrong.”<\/p>\n

– Bud Glover, parent in Bonifay, Fla.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhen I heard that this practice still exists, I was mortified,\u201d Porth said. \u201cNo child should not feel completely safe when they go to school.”<\/p>\n

But the bill failed. It never even reached a committee in the Florida Legislature.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just fine for parents like Bud Glover of Bonifay, a small town 15 miles from the Alabama border.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a place where tradition is valued and paddling is considered tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my butt beat and I know what’s right and wrong. And my children are going to know what’s right and wrong,\u201d Glover said.<\/p>\n

Glover represents the feelings of many parents in this part of Florida who support such punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the problem with society is we quit paddling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the state should not tell parents in his small town how to discipline their children.<\/p>\n

But in South Florida, student Camila Cacho, a junior at Miami Beach High School is astonished that the state still allows the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s so dumb, why would we allow people to hit students?\u201d Cacho said. \u201cI would feel embarrassed. That\u2019s degrading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students Make Paddles in\u00a0<\/strong>Wood Shop<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The instrument often used in school spankings is a wooden or plexiglass paddle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact<\/p>

Holmes County High School principal Eddie Dixson with senior Cole Long. Long thinks all schools should paddle students to teach kids "discipline and respect."<\/p><\/div>\n

There are no statewide regulations on what the paddles should look like, so each school district creates its own.<\/p>\n

The paddle at Holmes County High School looks like a really short rowboat paddle. It\u2019s about 16 inches long, 5 inches wide and a half an inch thick.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t buy them at a store, so Holmes County High asks woodshop students to make them.<\/p>\n

Senior Cole Long has never made a paddle, but he\u2019s been on the receiving end of one.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s been paddled for things like \u201cthrowing papers, throwing pencils, a couple times for cussing, back-talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be a really wild child,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago, Long won $7,200 at a bull-riding competition in Texas. But even for a bull-rider, Long says the paddle stings\u2014depending on who\u2019s doing the spanking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe assistant principal, he hurts, he hurts,\u201d Long said. \u201cI\u2019ve had it plenty of times from him and he gives it to us a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long thinks all schools should paddle students because he says the spankings teach students discipline and respect. And much of the community agrees.<\/p>\n

Paddling without Parental Consent<\/strong><\/h4>\n

But every once in a while, a parent from one of these small towns will object, like Tenika Jones of Levy County.<\/p>\n

Last year, the principal at Joyce Bullock Elementary sent home a waiver asking parents for permission to paddle students.<\/p>\n

Jones says she didn’t sign it. But her son, Geirrea Bostick, was paddled anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Gierrea Bostick, 6, was paddled on his second week of pre-school without the consent of his mom, Tenika Jones. The paddles allegedly left welts on Gierrea's bottom and Jones has filed a notice to sue the Levy County School District.<\/p><\/div>\n

He was five at the time. It was his second week of pre-school.<\/p>\n

Gierrea says the principal spanked him twice for slapping another boy on the school bus. He says the principal first told him to take his jacket off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she spank me on my booty,\u201d Gierrea said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried all the way home. It was really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gierrea’s mom says the paddling left welts on Gierrea’s bottom and she was outraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would have hit my son how she hit him, I would have been in jail, I would have been on the news, I would have been messed up trying to get my children back,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe whipped him up and to me that’s child abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones has filed a notice to sue the Levy County School District for paddling her son without her permission.<\/p>\n

But Robert Rush, a civil right attorney in Gainesville, says state law does not require schools to get parental consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the school board and the principal specifically authorize corporal punishment, it can be administered lawfully against the parents’ wishes,\u201d Rush said.<\/p>\n

Rush says the school principal sets the policy for paddling. And if the school acts in accordance with that policy, then \u201cit\u2019s very hard to sue them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re immune both civilly and criminally by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Rush says attorneys could argue excessive force was used.<\/p>\n

The school’s principal, Jamie Handlin, and the school district would not comment because they’re in pre-litigation.<\/p>\n

But Handlin told the Williston Pioneer newspaper, \u201cNothing was violated.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I disciplined out of love not anger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Supporters: Paddling Keeps Kids in School<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Schools are the only public institution where hitting is allowed. It\u2019s not allowed in prisons, hospitals, mental institutions or the military.<\/p>\n

The most recent statistics show that\u00a0223,190\u00a0students in the U.S. received corporal punishment in 2006, according to the Center for Effective Discipline.<\/p>\n

But school corporal punishment in general has been on the decline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New Jersey\u00a0was the first state to ban school corporal punishment, in 1867.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

The paddle at Madison County Central elementary and middle school hangs on the door of the principal's office, though he does not administer the punishment himself. The plexiglass paddle was made by a member of the community.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next state, Massachusetts, didn’t follow until more than 100 years later, when child protection laws started popping up and paddling students starting falling out of fashion.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u00a0is the most recent state to ban paddling. The ban passed just last year.<\/p>\n

Deborah Sendek,\u00a0a clinical child psychologist with\u00a0the Center for Effective Discipline,\u00a0says many studies on school corporal punishment show paddling does not deter students from misbehaving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we tend to see is the students who are paddled are paddled repeatedly throughout the course of the academic year and the following year and the following year,\u201d Sendek said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things that tells us it\u2019s not effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Sendek says\u00a0paddling can have negative short and long term physical and psychological consequences.\u00a0

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