Over the past few decades, numerous studies have concluded that spanking isn’t the best or most effective way to discipline a child successfully.
According to one large study, 63 percent of American parents admitted they had used verbal aggression — including swearing and insults — against their children at least once.
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.
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.
Once again, a case of corporal punishment has become news in the media even though this form of punishment has been banned by the government following a ruling of the High Court in January this year. This time, an administrative officer has beaten a student of an English medium school in the city. This form of punishment, which is a violation of human rights, is an impediment to achieving real education.
In stark terms that serve as a reminder of what we’re talking about, the bill defines corporal punishment as “the deliberate infliction of physical pain by hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping, or any other physical force used as a means of discipline.”