Guest Blog: Shackling Students: Why is One Mississippi School Handcuffing Bad Kids to Poles?

The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal class action lawsuit against Jackson Public School District in Mississippi for allowing an alternative school to shackle and handcuff students for hours on end as punishment for the most minor infractions, like speaking too loudly or not wearing a belt.

Guest Blog: Global Summit – Ending Corporal Punishment

The first Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline, June 2-4, hosted by S.M.U. psychology professor George Holden, Ph.D. in Dallas. Attending were activists representing twenty one countries who are dedicated to abolishing all forms of spanking, paddling, slapping, hitting and smacking of children world wide. We discussed studies that show corporal punishment produces no positive outcomes and is associated with increased aggression, as well as behavior and mental health problems. It also fosters lower IQ, poorer academic performance, and increased bullying.

A Dozier Boy’s Nightmare

Twenty White House Boys have died since 2008, including Michael O’McCarthy, a journalist and activist and incredibly, a boy at Marianna who had received one of the dreaded 100-lash beatings. He passed the story to Carol Marbin Miller, a journalist at the Miami Herald. The story broke two months later. In the end, this strange journey would cost us all more than we could ever have imagined.

Open Letter – Governor Rick Perry

Medical science has long recognized and documented in great detail how being struck on the buttocks can stimulate sexual feelings. Children are especially susceptible. The tragic consequence for many children who have been punished by paddling or spanking is that they form a connection between pain, humiliation and sexual arousal that endures for the rest of their lives.