Last week, a Brookhollow Elementary mom reported that she was furious since her son had been spanked twice by the principal. She says the school did not have her consent to use corporal punishment on the fifth grader. In response, LISD’s Superintendent Roy Knight is not making any apologies.
By the time she spanks, it is the mom’s second misbehavior. The first is whatever she did or did not do to cause the child to “misbehave.” A 15-month-old or a 3-year-old may be curious, impatient, goading, erring, attention-seeking and cuddle-requiring.
Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this historic moment. On Wednesday, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed HB 172, a bill which will eliminate corporal punishment in public schools across the state.
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education decided to wipe the district’s corporal punishment policy from the books during its monthly meeting Monday.
The board moved to strike down the policy in response to the North Carolina General Assembly’s recent ruling that districts with corporal punishment guidelines on their books can use them on students with disabilities if parents grant permission. That ruling would have forced I-SS to distribute some 2,500 letters to parents informing them of the policy and offering them an opportunity to either waive or accept it to be used on their children.
I-SS already had a directive in place against the use of corporal punishment.
Twenty states allow corporal punishment with a wooden paddle in school. Is your State one of them? If so, when will you step up to give your children the same legal protection from physical abuse, assault and battery as adults have?