WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2008
Study: Minority Students Paddled More
Human Rights Watch Says Black Kids Receive Corporal Punishment Twice As Often
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Even little kids can be paddled. Heather Porter, who lives in Crockett, Texas, was startled to hear her little boy, then 3, say he'd been spanked at school. Porter was never told, despite a policy at the public preschool that parents be notified.
"We were pretty ticked off, to say the least. The reason he got paddled was because he was untying his shoes and playing with the air conditioner thermostat," Porter said. "He was being a 3-year-old."
In its study, which was being released Wednesday, the group Human Rights Watch used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists. Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, states that account for 40 percent of kids who were paddled in the 2007 school year.
Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.
Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.
Widespread paddling can make it unlikely that forms will be checked. A teacher interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Tiffany Bartlett, said that in her Austin, Texas, school, the policy was to lock the classroom doors when the bell rang, leaving stragglers to be paddled by an administrator patrolling the hallways.
And even if schools make a mistake, they are unlikely to face lawsuits. In places where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals generally have legal immunity from assault laws, the study said.
"One of the things we've seen over and over again is that parents have difficulty getting redress, if a child is paddled and severely injured, or paddled in violation of parents' wishes," said Alice Farmer, the study's author.
A majority of states have outlawed it, but corporal punishment remains widespread across the South. Behind Texas and Mississippi were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.
The study also found:
More than 100 countries worldwide have banned paddling in schools, including all of Europe, Farmer said. "International human rights law puts a pretty strong prohibition on corporal punishment," she said.
Quote
In rural Drew, Miss., Nickolaus Luckett still remembers the paddlings he got in fifth and seventh grades. One happened when he called a teacher by her first name, the other when a classmate said, wrongly, that he threw a spitball.It perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry.
Jan Harp Domene, National PTA President"I didn't get any bruises, but they still hurt, and from that point on, I told myself and my parents I wasn't going to take any more paddlings," said Luckett, who is about to be a sophomore at the University of Mississippi.
It's not an easy choice. In many schools, kids can avoid a paddling if they accept suspension or detention, or for younger kids, if they skip recess. But often, a child opts for the short-term sting of the paddle.
And sometimes teachers don't have the option of after-school detention, because there are no buses to take kids home later.
During the three years Evan Couzo taught in the Mississippi Delta, he refused to paddle kids, offering detention instead. But others - teachers, parents, even kids - were accustomed to paddling.
"Just about everyone at the beginning of the year said, `If he or she gives you any trouble, you can paddle them. You can send them home, and I'll paddle them. Or you can have me come out to the school, and we can both paddle them.'
"It's really just a part of the culture of the school environment there," Couzo said.
There is scant research on whether paddling is effective in the classroom. But many studies have shown it doesn't work at home, said Elizabeth Gershoff, a University of Michigan assistant professor of social work.
"The use of corporal punishment is associated almost overwhelmingly with negative effects, and that it increases children's problem behavior over time," Gershoff said.
Children may learn to solve problems using aggression, and a sense of resentment might make them act out more, Gershoff said.
The practice is banned in 29 states, most recently in Delaware and Pennsylvania. While some education groups haven't taken a position on the issue, the national PTA believes paddling should be banned everywhere.
"We teach our children that violence is wrong, yet corporal punishment teaches children that violence is a way to solve problems," said Jan Harp Domene, the group's president. "It perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 77 CommentsWhat is your little darling doing under the control of someone else at 3 years old? Can''t you handle the responsibility of raising your own kid at 3 years old?
What is your little darling doing under the control of someone else at 3 years old? Can''t you handle the responsibility of raising your own kid at 3 years old?
BS......this is just a BS statistic with no proof at all. If spanking is done correctly and with compassion, it will bring about positive results. One only has to look at present day society to readily acknowledge that no corporal punishment in schools is not working.
It would be nice if so called journalists could leave thier personal bias at the door of thier office and report the facts ...
Like Joe Friday said ... just the facts Ma''am ... just the facts ...
Another slanted number gasme ...
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Posted by noseonurface at 05:30 AM
Spanking with compassion by a stranger? What a laugh. It isn''t even done by a parent. Spanking is a quick fix for a parent who doesn''t have time to spend with their child. It definitely shouldn''t be used by child care providers.
You''re not allowed to pray in school. Free speech has been banned in schools (trust me, a student says something about someone shooting up the school or venting anger and saying something like "I just he would die", and they''re suspended or expelled). Teachers and Administration are so worried about people''s feelings that some schools are getting rid of the grading system and trying to give everyone a "fair" chance by averaging out the grades among the students so the ones with Fs get Cs and the ones with As get Cs. And yet, these people are allowed to hit my kid?
Screw that.
But I do have one question - if minority children are twice as likely to get spanked as white children, who''s doing the spanking and what is the minority to white ratio in those schools? If the majority of students are minority, is it any wonder why they would get spanked more often?
This whole study p*ss*s me off.
Posted by noseonurface at 05:27 AM : Aug 20, 2008
Amen to that!!!!!
(I thought I would just try that blast from the past)
God - I love the political season...
children of the world.
1. Who among humanity chose their race to be born
into?
2. We have but one advantage as humans, intellect,
yet resort to the brute force of punishment
3. Training is appropriate for animals only, for
the inability to communicate in human terms.
4. Education and reasoning are the only enduring
methods to peace and understanding.
5. Using punishment as a means of control is to fail to educate, and becomes no deterrent in the absence of the threat of punishment.
6. Our children are our survival. Teach truth,not superstition and divisivness.
PLEASE!! FOR THE CHILDREN. Great-grandfather
I look back now and know it was good for me and it has made me a better adult.
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Posted by JackP32 at 09:03 AM
Spoken like a thug. Unfortunately, I have to work with people like yourself who tell me that their wonderful parent beat them and boy, did they know to respect their father. However, the same people telling me this are now drug addicts with all kinds of problems, including prison and more. Some success story it is that a parent beats his kid, but the kid turns out to be a piece of krap anyway.
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Posted by rudy654
Theres a difference between getting hit when your a child for doing something bad and getting the living h-ell beat out of you for no reason. The kids that get beat on for no reason are the ones who become problems. We are talking in moderation. Give your child one choice, to either follow directions or get spanked. Listen or get spanked. There are no options or bargaining with your children. Thats when they know they can get away with things a find loop holes. They arent dumb.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I guess they forgot to tell my father that fact.
So this is how so many end up in prison...
End azz busting now!
Posted by barbaraf4
It is not illegal to spank your children at home.
Posted by checkthepast
But because so many people (including the children) believe it is illegal is the reason such a high percentage of the next generation are so flip[ and mouthy.
Also the real study here should be "why a disproportional amount of minority children (and adults) behave in manners that require disipline by todays standards and laws.
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled."
The Dixiecrat Secesh Traitors can''t whup their Nigras any more, so they''ve taken to beating up Nigra children (and their own!) The Old Confederacy is really a Third World country embedded in the USA.
Since the abused child becomes the abuser, this propensity to beat the *** out of 3-year olds may explain why it seems to be the Southerners who are so anxious to have wars, kill the "mud races", murder civil rights leaders, and the like.
Perhaps the cleansing nuclear fire, disposed over Mississippi, Texas, and the rest would be a step in the right direction.
Posted by wangbang747
"You have something coming out of your mouth that I wouldn''t hold in my hand" as grandpa use to say.
And if you are big enough to talk that trashy, you are too big to spank.
You need your lights knocked out instead.
And too, if blacks commit most of the crime why wouldn''t there be more of them in jail-duh!!! It is not from being spanked.
We were spanked at home, and taught how to act, I don''t remember having to be punished in school like that or at all!!! Others were, the snobby white clich of girls, they were mouthy etc...their Mothers were undoubtedly the same.
That''s ridiculous. If the ''assistant professor of social work'' has any children please keep them away from me. I am a father of seven, ages ranging from 11 months to 34 years, and they are all great kids, partly because of positive reinforcement for positive behavior and negative reinforcement for negative behavior. I am their friend, but I am their FATHER first, and that carries a responsibility which includes proper discipline.
But that''s always what happens when you report ''news'' with a forgone conclusion in mind.
Posted by eddom949
But, if it''s not your thermostat keep your hands off of it, whether you are 3 or 93.
And there are only 2 kinds of people, those that have been taught that and those that have to be taught that.
One thing I did notice about the researchers view point is in the last statement...."It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry..."
My parents NEVER disciplined me in ANGER.. and that is passed on to me. As a father of 7 discipline is for correction, not for revenge or anger venting. If the researchers are seeing things from that viewpoint then it''s no wonder they are confused.
There are well disciplined children - the economic conditions of the family seem to control 80% of the childrens behavior but there are always exceptions in the economic ladder as well - meaning that children from upper class families think they are ''MORE'' special then ''ANYONE'' else including the teachers and you can tell they need a Good smack on the Arse.
Then there are some amazing lower class children with practically nothing at home and come in cleaner and more well behaved then all the rest.
I am convinced the Home is where Discipline should be not the school. Also with today''s economic conditions by the No child gets ahead except rich kids educational system of the Bush Admin these conditions I am sure will rise.
What did I learn?--Most kids are mirrors of thier parents.
The real study here should be "why a disproportional amount of minority children (and adults) behave in manners that require discipline by today''s standards and laws."
Posted by checkthepast at 09:50 AM
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