To spank or not to spank was the original question for parents, but of late, it’s also become a question for schools. Believe it or not, corporal punishment is legal for public schools in 19 states, including Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

One mom in Georgia videotaped her 5-year-old being paddled and it caused a ruckus on social media. Shana Perez said her son, Thomas, was being punished for spitting on another child. Two administrators are seen in the video attempting to get him to cooperate so they can pop him with a wooden paddle.

At many Georgia schools, it’s up to parents to decide if they want spanking to be a form of classroom discipline. They sign a consent form at the beginning of the school year to let school officials know if this will be an allowable form of discipline for their child. Some sign, some don’t.

Perez consented to the policy at Jasper County Primary School, and she was contacted before Thomas’s paddling. But she said she only consented to the paddling to avoid going to jail again for truancy. She was previously in trouble with the law because her son missed 18 days of school.

She was under the impression that choosing suspension over a paddling would mean more missed days. Perez posted a clip on Facebook of the principal and assistant principal trying to hold him still, and the boy can be heard crying for his mother to help him. The actual paddling was not shown.

Reactions to the viral video were swift. Many criticized the school for using a wooden paddle on such a young child, calling the incident traumatic and abusive. Others felt for the mom who said she was coerced, and yet there were some who supported disciplining the child for spitting and misbehaving.

After watching the video herself, Perez said it left her in tears and she wished she would’ve stopped it. She told local news station WSB 2:

“There’s no way I can express how sad or how I felt about watching him be treated like that. I didn’t realize at that moment how they basically abused him. To be honest, if I could go back, I would grab him up and say, ‘No. You can’t paddle him. Just go ahead and take me to jail.”

The school district declined to comment due to confidentiality laws but did state they investigated and found parental consent was verbally given. It is unclear how many incidents of corporal punishment the school has issued to date.

Nationwide, tens of thousands of public school students receive corporal punishment, typically as a paddling. In private schools, the practice is legal in 48 states. However, child advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, want to ban the practice altogether.

As it stands, many districts – including a number in Georgia – are continuing to hand out parent consent forms at the start of the school year, giving them the option to choose paddling as a form of school discipline. Not everyone signs, but there is no ban in effect.

Did this video break your heart? Do you live in a state where corporal punishment is allowed in public schools? Are you in agreement with such a policy?

Source:

NY Times