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David Matheson
NPR Ed
Where Corporal
Punishment Is Still Used In Schools, Its Roots Run Deep
Jess Clark
April 12, 2017
Robbinsville High School sits in a small gap in the Smoky Mountains of
North Carolina. Green slopes dotted with cattle hug in around the
school before they rise into a thick cover of pine trees.
David Matheson is the principal here. And he's the only high school
principal in the state who still performs corporal punishment. At
Robbinsville, corporal punishment takes the form of paddling - a few
licks on the backside Matheson delivers with a long wooden paddle.
North Carolina state law describes corporal punishment, as "The
intentional infliction of physical pain upon the body of a student as a
disciplinary measure."
Robbinsville High School's policy allows students to request a paddling
in place of in-school-suspension, or ISS. Last year, 22 students chose
it.
"Most kids will tell you that they choose the paddling so they don't
miss class," Matheson says.
One of those students is Allison Collins. She's a senior now and says
she chose to be paddled her sophomore year after her phone went off in
class. She describes it as, "My first time ever being in trouble."
Collins went to the assistant principal's office where she was told she
had a day of in-school-suspension. Collins told Principal Matheson
she'd rather take a paddling and so he called her father to get
permission.
"And my dad was like, 'Just paddle her,'" she says. "Because down here
in the mountains, we do it the old-school way."
That's the policy here. Principal Matheson paddles a student only if he
gets permission from their parent. And, he says, very few parents opt
out. Matheson grew up here and went to school with a lot of his
students' parents. "It's something that the family decides," he adds.
Nationwide, it's not unusual for parents to support the use of corporal
punishment as a form of discipline. Recent surveys show about 75
percent of Americans believe it's sometimes necessary to spank a child.
"I think it goes back to traditional values," says Cheri Lynn, a
Robbinsville parent who substitutes as a band teacher and coaches the
school's shooting team. "A lot of parents still hold to the traditional
values of corporal punishment. They use it at home, and so the school
is an extension of home."
In a classroom down the hall, Beau Cronland, a student teacher, says he
didn't know the school used corporal punishment until he sent one of
his freshman to the office for talking. "Kids talk," he says, "I don't
think they should get spanked for it, or paddled."
Tom Vitaglione, of the child-advocacy group NC Child, says for years
he's been sending school leaders research papers showing corporal
punishment leads to bad outcomes for students: higher drop-out rates,
increased rates of depression and substance abuse and increased violent
episodes down the road.
Principal Matheson says he's seen that research, but he still believes
paddling is an effective form of discipline. "I think if more schools
did it, we'd have a whole lot better society. I do, I believe that."
Vitaglione takes issue with that: "When it gets to schools, we now have
an agent of the state hitting a child," he says. "And we don't believe
that should happen."
When he started this work, more than thirty years ago, thousands of
children in North Carolina were struck each year. Now, Robbinsville
High is one of just a few schools that still use it. The latest numbers
show about 70 students were paddled in the state last school year.
A recent investigation by Education Week shows that in the 2013-2014
school year, about 110,000 students were physically punished
nationwide. That's in part because in some states, including
Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, tens of thousands of students
are paddled every year.
Child advocates are working toward zero paddlings in North Carolina.
They're asking state legislators to outlaw the practice in schools for
good. That's happening nationwide, too.
As NPR Ed reported in December, dozens of groups, including the
National PTA, Children's Defense Fund and American Academy of
Pediatrics signed a letter of their own, supporting an end to corporal
punishment.
Editor’s Note: Ohio expressly forbids corporal punishment.
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