Paddles are Back in Schools
October 4, 2022
The Cassville School District in Missouri, decided they would allow spankings with a
wooden paddle to students misbehaving.
This Missouri school district passed corporal punishments in their school June of 2022, and
started up schools Aug 23rd, 2022. The district consists of 1,900 students, who all could go
through this punishment. The school decided to bring back corporal punishments due to parents’
complaints of having issues with their children’s behavior. These parents thought that spankings
in school would help children behave better, here’s what Kristina Harkey , who has a son with
autism at Cassville, and opted out because he would hit back, had to say,
“There are all different types of kids,” Harkey said. “Some people need a good butt-
whipping. I was one of them.”
Victims of school spankings have said that they have been left with trauma, and bruises on
their back sides.
S.C Beckner, essayist and MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina wrote, ”Then
came the first swing of three that lifted my body, bent at the waist over the back of a chair, off
the floor. Large, knotted, blackberry-blue bruises rose on both sides of my buttocks, preventing
me from sitting for days.”
Some states have made it illegal to have corporal punishments like spankings in school, but
with Missouri, Nineteen U.S. states allow corporal punishment from preschool to 12th grade,
these consist of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. So it’s up to school boards how they want to use these
punishments in their school.
wooden paddle to students misbehaving.
This Missouri school district passed corporal punishments in their school June of 2022, and
started up schools Aug 23rd, 2022. The district consists of 1,900 students, who all could go
through this punishment. The school decided to bring back corporal punishments due to parents’
complaints of having issues with their children’s behavior. These parents thought that spankings
in school would help children behave better, here’s what Kristina Harkey , who has a son with
autism at Cassville, and opted out because he would hit back, had to say,
“There are all different types of kids,” Harkey said. “Some people need a good butt-
whipping. I was one of them.”
Victims of school spankings have said that they have been left with trauma, and bruises on
their back sides.
S.C Beckner, essayist and MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina wrote, ”Then
came the first swing of three that lifted my body, bent at the waist over the back of a chair, off
the floor. Large, knotted, blackberry-blue bruises rose on both sides of my buttocks, preventing
me from sitting for days.”
Some states have made it illegal to have corporal punishments like spankings in school, but
with Missouri, Nineteen U.S. states allow corporal punishment from preschool to 12th grade,
these consist of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. So it’s up to school boards how they want to use these
punishments in their school.
We asked parents how they would feel if they were sending their child to a school where
their child could be spanked by someone other than them, or how they would feel if they found
out their child was.
They stated, “I’m not against spanking, but that doesn’t mean I want another person doing it.
It should be the parents job to punish and spank their children, not someone outside of the
parental figure”
Though parents might okay these spankings, many public health experts have said that this is
harmful to the children, Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer with American Psychological
Association, said that corporal punishment will not end or reduce inappropriate behavior, but
will increase aggression and hostility, and this could lead to depression and self-esteem
problems.
Caseville school doesn’t seem to have changed their opinion on corporal punishments despite
the warnings of how this could end.
their child could be spanked by someone other than them, or how they would feel if they found
out their child was.
They stated, “I’m not against spanking, but that doesn’t mean I want another person doing it.
It should be the parents job to punish and spank their children, not someone outside of the
parental figure”
Though parents might okay these spankings, many public health experts have said that this is
harmful to the children, Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer with American Psychological
Association, said that corporal punishment will not end or reduce inappropriate behavior, but
will increase aggression and hostility, and this could lead to depression and self-esteem
problems.
Caseville school doesn’t seem to have changed their opinion on corporal punishments despite
the warnings of how this could end.
