Spanking in School

Spanking in School

Nineteen US states still allow public school staff to strike students with wooden boards.

These states are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming.

This happens even in schools with zero-tolerance policies for violence. Each year, at least 166,000 children are struck by public school faculty. This number increases when students attending private schools are considered.​

​For information on each state’s laws on school corporal punishment, please click here.

12 Things to Know About Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools

  1. Only 2 of the 24 major industrialized countries still allow school corporal punishment. The U.S. is one of them.
  2. ​Corporal punishment is still legal in public schools in 19 U.S. states.
  3. ​School corporal punishment is typically administered with a wooden paddle two feet long, four inches wide, and half an inch thick.
  4. ​In the 2011-2012 school year, a total of 163,333 children, from preschool through 12th grade, were subjected to corporal punishment in their public schools.
  5. ​Boys, Black students, and students with disabilities are disproportionately corporally punished.
    ​Ironically, the most common reasons for school corporal punishment are fighting, aggression, and disruptive behavior.
  6. The majority of Americans (77%) oppose school corporal punishment.
  7. Many professional organizations oppose school corporal punishment
  8. ​States that have banned school corporal punishment have not seen an increase in juvenile crime.
  9. ​Where school corporal punishment is legal, teachers are allowed to use a level of violence that would be considered physical abuse if done by a parent.
  10. ​There are many effective ways of teaching students of all ages without ever hitting them.
  11. Children are the only US citizens who can be legally hit.

​

Our Affiliate Organizations

AVA-Photoroom
APSAC-Photoroom
The Foundling
NHZ
NIECP-Photoroom
US-ALLIANCE-Photoroom

Our Media

Donald E. Greydanus, MD, Pediatrics Program Director at the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, testifies at a hearing about corporal punishment in schools and its effect on academic success.

Well-informed Mississippi student activists petition their school board with intelligent and emotional words to end school paddling in their district: