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Decades ago, the parents in Indiana would take an unruly child out behind the proverbial woodshed and give them an attitude adjustment. Many, were the children of ages past that learned discipline from a switch or the hand. Then came the progressive attitude. The attitude that placed.....

Should Corporal Punishment play a role in schools? A state task force recommends CP be banned in schools. It would ban: spanking, paddling, slapping with rulers and more. Although not used much in AZ, it is commonly employed in other states. Corporal punishment be banned. Minor forms of corporal punishment are acceptable, like spanking and using rulers. Corporal punishment should be banned in public schools only. All forms of corporal punishment should be allowed. The government should spend their time on other important issues.

When Glenn Storman, a guidance counselor at Public School 212 in Gravesend, Brooklyn, came across an unruly student cursing at a substitute teacher in 2004, he ordered the boy to “zip it” and brandished a rolled-up piece of paper, thinking that would be the last he heard of the encounter. 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,...

CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting. That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message. The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25. "It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said. The bill was legit. Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been...

Hundreds Of Kids Beaten, Whipped, Even Choked By Teachers, Coaches Reporting Hundreds of students have allegedly been beaten by teachers, coaches and staff at Chicago Public Schools. 2 Investigator Dave Savini continues his ongoing investigation involving the illegal use corporal punishment. Treveon Martin, 10, is afraid of a teacher at his school. "I've seen him hit five of them in the classroom," Martin said. Martin says he and others have been hit, grabbed and even struck with a belt. "He's threatened almost all the kids in his classroom," Martin said. He says it happened at Robert Emmet Academy in November...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

A Los Fresnos family is asking a state district court to stop a Cameron County justice of the peace from ordering spankings in his courtroom and to remove the judge from office. Mary Vasquez and her husband Daniel Zurita filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of their minor daughter against Cameron County Pct. 6 Justice of the Peace Gustavo "Gus" Garza. Brownsville lawyer Mark Sossi represents the family. The petition alleges that on April 9, Garza told the then-14-year-old girl and her stepfather that the teen would be found guilty of a criminal offense and fined $500 for not attending...

Children who are spanked or given some form of physicial punishment by their parents may be more likely to have sexual problems as adults, a new study finds. An analysis of four studies by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, found that children who suffer physical punishment in the form of spanking, hitting or slapping are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior as adults, it is reported by USA Today. The study, presented Thursday to the American Psychological Association, suggests that spanked children also are more likely to be "physically...

ALAMO -- Some kids get "rulered," while others are "whupped" or "popped." Sometimes they get "cuffed," "drubbed," "blipped" or "boxed." The semantics don't matter, said Jordan Riak; it's all a spanking, and, according to the longtime corporal punishment abolitionist, it's unacceptable by any name, anywhere. "The public is in denial," he said. "You have to invent funny words to keep it from being serious. It's cartoon language: 'Oh, I'm not violent, I just gave him a butt-warming.'"'" Riak, 72, is a retired teacher who has dedicated about three decades of his life trying to convince people that sparing the rod...

They’re at it again. Apparently, Massachusetts legislators feel that the nanny state is just not overwhelming enough already. Or perhaps they believe that the term “nanny state” is meant to be taken literally. A Democratic legislator recently filed a bill in the state legislature banning spanking. No no, the bill isn’t designed to ban child abuse or truly injurious behavior – there are already plenty of laws on the books and social services to cover those situations. House Bill 3922 would presume guilty of child abuse and neglect any parent who spanks little Timmy on the behind for repeatedly putting...

FORT WORTH -- A Fort Worth police officer arrested last week on accusations he spanked the rear of a woman he caught engaging in sexual conduct in a car in Oakhurst Park was charged with official oppression. If convicted of that charge, a Class A misdemeanor, officer Craig Murrah faces up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Prosecutor Kurt Stallings confirmed Thursday that Murrah had been officially charged but said the case will also be presented to a grand jury. Police have said that at about 1 a.m. on June 22, Murrah found a couple engaging in...

UNION -- A Monroe County elementary art teacher was suspended without pay for putting masking tape under the noses of about 25 third-graders in a joking attempt to quiet them, Superintendent Lyn Guy said. The Monroe County Board of Education voted Monday night to uphold the 10-day suspension of Donna Spangler, an art teacher at Peterstown Elementary School. Spangler's suspension ended Monday and she has since returned to work. "I didn't think it was very funny,'' Guy said Tuesday. "It wasn't right and she (Spangler) made a huge mistake in judgment and she has paid for it.'' Guy said the...

NASSAU, Bahamas (Reuters) - A man convicted of trying to rape an 83-year-old woman was sentenced to eight lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails, a punishment used by the British Navy in the 18th century and reinstated in the Bahamas 15 years ago. Click to learn more... Altulus Newbold, 34, was sentenced on Friday to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of burglary, attempted rape and causing harm. Justice Jon Isaacs ordered that he receive four lashes of the whip at the start of his sentence and four upon his release, but suspended the punishment for three weeks pending a...

A Unionville mother and father are complaining about the paddling of their 14-year-old son, allegedly by Community High School's assistant principal, and they've taken their concerns to the superintendent of schools, the sheriff's department and have released their boy's medical records showing bruises and swelling at his tailbone. "Diagnosis: Child Abuse," is a notation in the physician's notes. Community High School Principal Robert Ralston declined comment and deferred questions to Bedford County Schools' Central Office where Superintendent Ed Gray said he's in the middle with responsibilities to protect students' as well as employees' rights. To avoid duplication of efforts, Gray...

The pastor of an Elgin church repeatedly spanked a teenage girl with a 3-foot piece of wood to make her stop making sex abuse allegations against a family member, police said today. The Rev. Daryl P. Bujak, 30, of Elgin, turned himself in to police Wednesday after authorities filed a misdemeanor battery charge against him stemming from the weekly beatings that occurred between March and May of 2005. Police now believe the 13-year-old McHenry County girl was telling the truth when she claimed a relative, Matthew Resh, molested her. Resh, 33, of Ingleside, was arrested this week on five counts...

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from announcing initiatives to deal with problem parents and their unruly offspring, has admitted this morning to smacking his older children. Blair's admission came on a BBC television question and answer session with members of the public about his "respect" measures, unveiled earlier in the day to tackle anti-social behaviour. The 52-year-old prime minister was put on the spot about his own parental discipline when the presenter asked: "Do you smack your kids? Did you?... Did it cause a problem?" Blair, who has four children aged five to 21, replied: "No, I think, funnily...

The school bus driver accused earlier this week of duct taping a kindergartener's mouth shut will return to the same route when classes resume after the winter holiday, Pinellas County school officials said Friday. An investigator with the district found no evidence to support Kyle Gerber's allegation that the driver taped his mouth on the ride home from Dunedin Elementary School Monday...

Terry Looper Corporal punishment hasn't been used at Cascade High School for more than a decade, according to the principal. Meanwhile, paddling "has its place" at Shelbyville Central High School, the principal said this week, but he doesn't do it and the only instances of paddling there have been in the vocational part of the school. Cascade Principal Terry Looper and Central Principal Don Embry spoke about corporal punishment on Wednesday and Thursday on a condition that it be made clear: They're not commenting on what's alleged at Community High School. "Child abuse" is what a Smyrna doctor wrote as...

Despite what Bart Simpson might say, repetitive writing of sentences on the blackboard -- as seen at the beginning of every episode of "The Simpsons" -- is not corporal punishment. Neither is running an extra lap around the track or standing in a corner. But swatting a kid's bottom is, and that form of discipline is on its way to being outlawed in Pennsylvania public schools. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission yesterday voted 5-0 to add Pennsylvania to the list of 28 other states that ban corporal punishment in public schools. The regulations don't take effect until they are published...

EZULWINI VALLEY, Swaziland (Reuters) -- The king of Swaziland's daughter was whipped by a palace official at a party of teenage virgins ahead of a festival where more than 50,000 maidens are available to become her father's 13th wife, media said on Sunday. Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises. Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa's last absolute monarch in Monday's Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati...

A student who claims he was expelled from a training program for prospective teachers because of his support for corporal punishment and his opposition to multicultural education filed a $40 million lawsuit yesterday and demanded to be reinstated.

ST. PETERSBURG - What parent hasn't tried this trick on stubborn children: Tell them it's time to go, pretend you're leaving and hope they follow. Two educators tried the tactic last month in the case of a 5-year-old girl at Fairmount Park Elementary. Twice it failed. The pair used a range of other strategies in an hourlong ordeal, about 30 minutes of which were caught on a videotape released this week by a lawyer for the girl's mother. Some of their "interventions" appeared to work, others did not. Although administrators and many teachers are trained in dealing with misbehaving children,...

'Bring back the whip' By darren bahaw Thursday, June 17th 2004 A REPORT to combat violence and indiscipline in the nation's schools has recommended the reintroduction of corporal punishment as one of the immediate measures to be implemented by the Ministry of Education. Education Minister Hazel Manning, in releasing the report yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad, said Prof Ramesh Deosaran, author of the report, was commissioned to research the growing trend of indiscipline in schools and come up with the necessary solutions. Manning said the rush by the previous administration to provide secondary school places for all students in 2000...

When it comes to spanking, there's no such thing as a consensus in America's schools. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have outlawed corporal punishment in public schools, all in the past 40 years. But as the number of students feeling the sting of the paddle declines, some parents and educators are digging in to defend it as an effective form of discipline. It's another symbol of the nation's red-blue divide. Most states that still allow the practice are in the South and Midwest. But policies long favoring corporal punishment have come up for debate recently on Southern school...

As a substitute teacher in the public schools here, Scott McConnell says students are often annoyed that he does not let them goof off in class. Yet he was not prepared for the sixth grader who walked up to his desk in November, handed in an assignment, and then swore at him. The profanity transported him back to his own days at Robert E. Lee Elementary School in Oklahoma in the 1980's, when there was a swift solution for wiseacres: the paddle. He said he had been a disruptive student, and routinely mouthed off until his fourth-grade teacher finally gave...

Arlington, Mass. -- To raise a child, one needs three invaluable allies: the Bible, the help of an extended family and "biblical-based resources" -- 9-inch-long spanking paddles of blue polyurethane, according to Steve Haymond from Bakersfield, who sells the paddles online for $6.50 apiece. Twyla Bullock, in Eufaula, Okla., swears by the Rod -- a 22-inch, $5 white nylon whipping stick her husband designed and produced until recently. Named after the biblical "rod of correction," the Rod provides "a faith-based way to discipline children ... and train them as Christians," Bullock explains. Susan Lawrence, a devout Lutheran from Arlington, Mass.,...

18-year-old student sues over paddling The Associated Press When Jessica Serafin enrolled in a charter high school, her mother signed a form allowing administrators to paddle her as punishment. But by the time a summer school principal paddled her last June, Serafin was already 18 and legally an adult. Now she´s suing the School of Excellence in Education, San Antonio´s largest charter school, alleging it was wrong for the principal to paddle an adult student without her consent. She says the beating she received for leaving campus to get breakfast was so severe she had to go to the emergency...

LeMoyne College expels man over paper While students are guaranteed the freedom of speech, LeMoyne College's recent actions against a student have raised questions of whether or not academic papers are the place to exercise this right. LeMoyne College expelled Scott McConnell, a student from its Masters of Education program, for writing a paper in which he advocated the use of corporal punishment in schools, he said. The paper, written for a class on classroom management, originally earned McConnell an A-. However, when he attempted to enroll in classes for the spring semester, he found he couldn't.

GARY, Ind. -- An elementary school basketball coach faces battery charges for allegedly paddling several of his 13-year-old players for poor shooting after a loss. Thayer L. Williamson, 31, was charged with three counts of felony battery alleging that he used a wooden paddle as punishment for the boy's poor performance. The alleged corporal punishment came to light after several of the boys told their parents. A school nurse told police she examined every boy on the team and 11 of the 12 players had bruises, welts or swelling on their buttocks the day after the paddling. Lake County prosecutors...

ARLINGTON -- On a spring day, Susan Lawrence was flipping through a magazine, Home School Digest, when she came across an advertisement that took her breath away. In it, ''The Rod," a $5 flexible whipping stick, was described as the ''ideal tool for child training." ''Spoons are for cooking, belts are for holding up pants, hands are for loving, and rods are for chastening," read the advertisement she saw nearly two years ago for the 22-inch nylon rod. It also cited a biblical passage, which instructs parents not to spare the ''rod of correction." The ad shocked Lawrence, a Lutheran...

London, Dec. 1 - A private Christian school that says corporal punishment is part of its religious beliefs asked the House of Lords on Wednesday to uphold its right to spank misbehaving pupils. The Christian Fellowship School in Liverpool, northwest England, says a 1996 government ban on corporal punishment in schools is out of step with the wishes of the public and infringes the rights of Christians to practice their beliefs. The High Court and the Court of Appeal have both rejected that argument. James Dingemans, representing the school and headmaster Philip Williamson, told five law lords - members of...

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE -- The City School Board has voted to ban corporal punishment in the public schools, forcing teachers to replace the traditional wood paddle with tools such as mental health support and more recognition for students who perform well.

Smacking ban campaign continues Campaigners opposed to smacking children have vowed to fight on after peers rejected an outright ban. On Monday the Lords voted for a compromise measure that only bans parents from hitting their children if it causes lasting harm. The government opposes a ban and had told Labour peers not to back one. But senior Labour MP David Hinchliffe said 100 backbenchers and a "significant" number of ministers wanted smacking outlawed altogether. The health committee chairman called on the government to allow MPs a free vote on the issue. Mr Hinchliffe said: "I genuinely hope the government...

Spanking is in the news again, and parents have every reason to be concerned that anti-spanking fanatics will not rest until corporal punishment is banned throughout society. In recent weeks, the spanking issue has gained public attention from Brookline, Massachusetts to Great Britain and several points in between. A concerted effort by self-designated child experts is directed at subverting parental rights and parental authority by eliminating spanking and replacing discipline with a relationship of negotiation between parent and child. In Brookline, citizens debated the spanking issue at a town meeting after resident Ronald Goldman convinced the Board of Selectmen to...

STILL SWINGING Opposition to paddling grows By PARIS ACHEN Special to the Chronicle WHEN JIMMY DUNNE was a math teacher at Houston's Black Middle School in the early 1960s, paddling was the customary way to punish a student's unruly behavior. "I paddled students, but I started thinking, why am I doing this when I don't do it at home?" said Dunne, now president of People Opposed to Paddling Students, a Houston-area group formed in 1982. "I noticed some teachers were getting a sadistic pleasure out of hitting kids, so I stopped after a couple of years." Dunne's group and national...

A Wyoming Area teacher was charged Wednesday with assault in an incident with a student. By BONNIE ADAMS badams@leader.net School officials in Pennsylvania can use corporal punishment against students, but the state Board of Education is trying to ban the practice. Wyoming Area School District, whose teacher John Bauman allegedly punched a student May 6 for making an error on a math problem, has a form parents can sign to prohibit corporal punishment of their children. Bauman, 35, was charged Wednesday with simple assault, endangering the welfare of children, disorderly conduct and harassment. Wyoming Area Superintendent Ray Bernardi said corporal...

Check your local listings for airtimes. (Current show is updated every weekday at 5pm EST.) HEALTH Health Experts Warn of Antidepressant Dangers for Children, Teens By Darla SittonCBN News Producer In America, Prozac is the only drug the FDA has "approved" for pediatric depression. CBN.com – (CBN News) - As many as one in eight adolescents suffers from clinical depression. And these kids are often treated with anti-depressant drugs that have been tested and approved for adult use. But the drugs may not be safe for children. Corey Baadsgaard doesn't remember storming into his honors English class with a...

Updated: April 1st, 2004 10:46:30 AM New Jersey Teacher Charged With Choking Second-Grader ............ NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A substitute teacher is accused of using a string to choke a 7-year-old student who had not done his homework. Albert Coleman, 59, is accused of slipping a string around the child's neck and drawing it tight, police said. He was fired by the Newark school district, and police charged him with aggravated assault following Monday's incident at the Elliott Street School. A Newark Public Schools spokeswoman said the incident happened to the second-grader at an after-school program and said the teacher...

<p>HAYESVILLE - When Tami Smith's 10-year-old son got in trouble at school in February, she told the principal it was OK to spank him.</p> <p>But when she later found bruises on her son's leg, she decided principal Mickey Noe had gone too far.</p>

A Christian Perspective on Corporal PunishmentForward By David N. Bell Ten Reasons I Can't Spank A Catholic Counselor's Critical Examination of Corporal Punishment By Gregory K. Popcak, MSW, LCSW FORWARD Let me begin by saying something provocative: that the issue of corporal punishment lies at the heart of our childrens' religious formation; and that the nature and effects of corporal punishment pose a serious threat to the outcome we Catholic parents seek for our children: that is, healthy, joyful, unique and faithful Christian adults (and, of course, for many, parents themselves). Of this, I and my wife, Kathleen, have been...

ABC13 Eyewitness News (10/14/03) — A preschool teacher at a Houston charter school is facing allegations that she paddled a child. The incident allegedly happened Friday at Varnett Charter School in southwest Houston. Parents gathered Tuesday to support the woman who has been suspended with pay. "There has been no formative action taken other than the teacher has been suspended with pay pending the completion of the investigation," said school superintendent Annette Cluff. "It's hard to find a good teacher," said parent Lesa Andrepont. "Since we have a good teacher, let's try to support her." School officials have not...

<p>Emily Peters / The Town Talk Posted on October 12, 2003 Sometimes, Rapides Parish students have to face a few swift swats to the backside to pay the price for misbehaving at school.</p> <p>But the Rapides Parish School Board is paying the real price in defense costs when some parents sue the school system because their children face corporal punishment at school.</p>

UNITED NATIONS - The UN has told the Canadian government to ban all forms of corporal punishment of youngsters -- including even a light slap. The ruling, handed down by a committee of the world body, comes as a poll yesterday showed Canadians are evenly split when it comes to spanking by Mom or Dad, but on the whole against allowing teachers to hit children. Spanking is also before the Supreme Court of Canada, which is weighing a petition to repeal a federal law that lets parents, teachers or guardians apply "reasonable force" to discipline a minor. Traditional family rights...

A court yesterday ruled that it was not a crime for a man to beat an out-of-control teenager with a belt. At Stirling sheriff court yesterday, Sheriff Robert Younger ruled that the beating, carried out as the 13-year-old hid under his bedclothes, was "reasonable chastisement". The 37-year-old defendant, from Stirling, had admitted striking the boy two or three blows, but denied assault. He said that he had been driven to his wits' end by the boy's behaviour, and the beating was a punishment. The teenager, who cannot be named, told the court that the beating was his fault. The court...

TAMPA - Hillsborough County School Board members on Tuesday made it official: They support corporal punishment in county schools. They also made one caveat very clear: It should be used only as a last resort. The most recent debate over corporal punishment surfaced last week when School Board member Jennifer Faliero recounted seeing an 8-year-old boy cursing and screaming in the office of an elementary school. At a workshop on Aug. 12 where board members were discussing the hundreds of children who are expelled, suspended and transferred because of behavioral problems, Faliero asked board members to make a strong statement...

Corporal Punishment Gets New Twist Policy Adjustment Gives Parents More Power POSTED: 12:03 p.m. CDT August 15, 2003 DALLAS As students in Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth head back to school, the corporal punishment controversy is pushed back into the spotlight, but Dallas schools report that they are leaving the decision to the parents. When students misbehave, principals have always had the option of corporal punishment. But under a new policy, corporal punishment is only possible with parents' written permission. It also mandates that corporal punishment must be administered while another staff person acts as an official witness. "What...

Support for a smack on bottom Jennifer Faliero asks fellow School Board members to join her in making a strong statement in favor of paddling. By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published August 13, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TAMPA - Back in May, School Board member Jennifer Faliero was in the office of an elementary school when an 8-year-old boy came in, cursing and screaming, after he had been kicked out of class. Three adults tried to control him. "He was cursing out the assistant principal," she said. "The sheriff (deputy) had to be called to restrain this...

Some Hillsborough County School Board members want to bring back spanking to punish ``the brats.'' Both the state and district allow corporal punishment. Hillsborough has given principals the authority to discipline students by hitting them on their behinds with a wooden paddle, but as far as anyone knows, principals haven't done so for more than a decade, said school officials said. A couple of Hillsborough principals even ended up on the state registry of child abusers in the past for their actions, said board member Glenn Barrington, who sparked the discussion at a Tuesday workshop meeting Tuesday that tackled discipline...

Dallas Independent School District administrators are proposing to end -- or at least to sharply curtail -- one of the oldest forms of schoolhouse punishment: paddling. Nationally, 27 states have banned corporal punishment; Texas is among 23 states where it remains legal, according to the U.S. Department of Education. According to a 1999 U.S. Department of Education survey: o That year, nearly 74,000 of Texas' 3.9 million students were paddled -- of which about 83 percent were boys. o Although blacks made up 14 percent of Texas students, they were 24 percent of those paddled. o Whites were 43 percent...

Social workers who entered a private Christian school without a warrant and questioned a 10-year-old boy about corporal punishment violated the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court has ruled. Ruling in favor of parents in Milwaukee, Wis., the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the government employees – Carla Heck, John Wichman and supervisor Christine Hansen – in probing alleged child abuse at Greendale Baptist Academy, violated both the Fourth and 14th Amendments. "This is a tremendous victory for parental rights," said Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the Center for Law & Policy, which represented the parents in...