BAXLEY, GA (WTOC) – Should educators be allowed to spank a child who misbehaves? It’s a subject that’s been debated for years.

In the State of Georgia, paddling students is legal, but the implementation of a spanking policy is left up to each school district. But one Baxley parent says her son’s school took it too far.

“I haven’t seen any write-ups or warnings. It just says, ‘classroom disturbance, throwing objects in class’ and he received two licks,” said mom Carletta Crummey.

She says the note was sent home Thursday about her 13-year-old son Cody and that, “two licks” means being hit twice with a paddle.

“He said, ‘I need to call home’ and they refused to let him call home and they paddled him,” said Crummey.

Crummey says Appling County Middle School teachers should have let her know first before they made the decision to hit her child.

“We don’t believe in paddling our child,” she said. “I don’t think what he did was right. I want them to punish him, but not hurt him where he is afraid to go back to school. You know if I put bruises on him, I would be in trouble. I don’t think a stranger should be allowed to put bruises on a child.”

Crummey says she doesn't understand why some school districts allow this to happen.
“Suspend him, send him home, let me take care of the problem.

Comment from Maureen Downey:

(And for those of you who are going to say that if this mother paddled her son more, he wouldn’t throw thing in class, there is no evidence that kids raised on corporal punishment are better behaved as a result.)

Viewer Comments:

I agree with the parent and your article. The school system claims to be mandate reporters, so if our children come to school with apparent bruises, parents are immediately suspected of abuse and are in trouble. I also agree with you in saying that “there is no evidence that kids raised on corporal punishment are better behaved as a result.” We do not want a stranger disciplining our child with physical contact, and we should be informed prior to any action taken. Who knows what this “educator’s” agenda is anyway.

Based on my dealing with the school systems, the counselors all seem to be reading from the same playbook called “stupid.”. Based on my research, under NCLB, parents should be informed prior to the initiation of any disciplinary action against the child. The way the law is written the school has to make a good faith attempt to contact the parent, and if there is no contact, the school has to send a certified letter within 48 hours to the parent about the action it intends to take.

Because these blogs have educated me so to the inner workings of the school system, and the lack of due process our children encounter if there is a problem, these are our instructions to our child of what is expected while at school:

Sit down, be respectful, do not disrupt the class, no name calling, no aggressive behavior, no intentional physical contact with anyone. If there is an incident(because there will be), and you are taken to the office by the counselors, resource officer or administration, you are to ask politely for the school to call your parents, or call us yourself. If the school refuses to call and/or allow you to call us, sit there and do not say another word, do not give any statements orally or written, and do not sign any prepared statements. They have to send you home eventually if you are not involved in any incident that could be deemed criminal. They cannot punish you any further if you sit quietly in the office!

In Gwinnett County, a recent audit showed there have been numerous incidents when the resource officers/administration have detained children without due process aka parents not being informed in a timely manner and the child being detained. Children have been intimated to sign or make statements that have been used against them without the parent even being present. The parents only find out about the statements when the school system is ready to impose the punishment and which time it is too late.

Questions that should be raised [a] are children precluded from their constitutional rights while at school? [b] if the death penalty is seen as “cruel and usual” punishment and prisoners’ rights are always being protected, why are schools engaging in physical discipline with children?

I know many will argue that this is not a death penalty or prisoners’ rights issue, which is true, but the physical punishment is no less cruel and unusual, and who protects the rights of our children in schools?.

I became an advocate for children’s rights to be treated with human dignity and respect in our nation’s SCHOOLS (ABOLISH Physical/Corporal Punishment) in Feb. 2008 after my son was threatened with being hit with a WOODEN PADDLE by an administrator at his Middle School in a small, rural community, Houston County, TN, where we purchased a farm and relocated to in order to raise our children in a less congested environment. There are only 8,000 residents and one of each elementary, middle and high school with enrollments of around 300 students each.

We did read our school district’s student handbook and were shocked to see that children could be subjected to Corporal Punishment, but in our complacency, we never dreamed that it would happen to any of our children, we signed and returned the acknowledgement. No opt our form is provided and it is incumbent upon parents/guardians to write a letter for each child, each year and give it to the principal, to request they be exempted from corporal punishment, then it is up to the discretion of the principal (I have since found out that Tennessee State Law does not require parental consent or notification for school employees to administer corporal punishment on children).

We have never had a discipline problem with any of our 3 children at home or school. They are all intelligent, reasonable and well-behaved. One Friday at 2:30 p.m., I was on my way to the Middle School to pick up my son and two neighbor boys who ride with us, when my cell phone rang. It was the middle school assistant principal who informed me that she was about to administer a paddling to my son for “Going outside with his class when he was told to stay in.” THE ONLY REASON I RECEIVED A CALL IS BECAUSE I’VE TAUGHT MY 3 CHILDREN FROM A VERY EARLY AGE THAT “NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TOUCH THEM, THEY CAN SAY “NO”, GET AWAY AND TELL SOMEONE” TO PROTECT THEM FROM SEXUAL ABUSE! My son told her they could not paddle him and they had to call his parents.

I felt very intimidated and almost agreed to her form of punishment, then I had a moment of clarity and said “We don’t hit our children and we don’t want you to hit them”. She informed me that he still had to be “PUNISHED” and after discussion, an acceptable, non-violent form of “discipline” was agreed upon. My husband and I made an appointment to meet with the principal and assistant principal and the first thing they did was go to a filing cabinet and inform us that we had signed the acknowledgement from the student handbook.

I immediately began researching the internet for state government officials to write in order to demand Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in schools be prohibited. I came across a group called “Tennesseans for Non-Violent School Discipline” and when I read some of the stories from families in the news, and how helpless they were to protect their children from being hit with WOODEN PADDLES at school, resulting in severe deep bruising injuries and fear of school to their children, I cried and had to stop reading. I VOWED TO BE A COMMITTED VOICE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES to stop government sanctioned child abuse in our nation’s schools. NO CHILD DESERVES TO BE TOUCHED BY ANY ADULT WHO IS ENTRUSTED WITH THEIR CARE AND EDUCATION, IT MUST BE HANDS-OFF!

I have learned so much, the Federal and State Government officials leave the very serious matter that put school districts at risk for lawsuits for paddling injuries up to “individual local school districts”. My husband and I made a verbal/written presentation to members of our local school district governing board of education in April 2008, during “National Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month” to demand they prohibit Physical/Corporal Punishment of children in our schools, and to date, 11/09, we have received NO RESPONSE, no letter, no phone call, they have IGNORED US! In other words, there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY! Meanwhile our children’s learning environment includes witnessing middle school teachers take wooden paddles out of their desk drawers to threaten students with physical pain for minor infractions such as not turning in homework, etc. Students are taken to the hallway, just outside of class, within earshot of classmates, where the teacher instructs them to “Bend over and grab your ankles”, while holding their pants belt loop and hits them with a wooden paddle. Then the battered student immediately faces classmate with red and tear-stained face when they return to their seat.

This all takes place with NO PARENTAL CONSENT OR NOTIFICATION! My husband and I are VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED to our children’s learning environment including FEAR, ANXIETY, DREAD AND HUMILIATION! Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in SCHOOLS is ILLEGAL in 30 STATES! It is OUTRAGEOUS that ALL of our nation’s children do not have EQUAL access to safe, healthy learning environments in 21st Century classrooms! Research indicates that Physical/Corporal Punishment is harmful to children and causes anti-social behavior and also lowers children’s IQ’s from stress caused by fear. Over 50 National Children’s Health and Education Organizations have issued official position statements OPPOSING Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in SCHOOLS including The American Medical Association (AMA), The American Academy of Pediatricians, The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, The American Academy of Family Physicians, The American Bar Association, The American Humane Association, The American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, The American Public Health Association, The American School Counselors Association, The Association for childhood Education International, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The National Mental Health Association, The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), The National Education Association (NEA) and Prevent Child Abuse America among others. Over a 5 year period this decade, since 2000, over 2,500 teachers have been punished for improper sexual relations with our nation’s school children. Spanking fetish web sites number in the millions and the pornography and prostitution industries make big profits from exploiting spanking/severe beating of children.

I know in my heart that if I had allowed a school employee to hit my child with a wooden paddle, it would have caused irreparable damage our mother/child bond of love and trust that I have spent his lifetime working to establish, from giving birth to him, nursing him and raising him to the best of my ability, never condoning violence, instead teaching my children to get away and tell someone. He would have resented me for the rest of his life and mine for allowing him to experience the physical, emotional and psychological pain, suffering and humiliation of being hit with a WOODEN PADDLE by a school employee within earshot of his peers during the formative teenage period of his identity struggling for acceptance by his peers and establishing his independence.

The Cost to ABOLISH Physical/Corporal Punishment of ALL Children in ALL SCHOOLS is $0.

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