The Obama administration Tuesday called for an end to corporal punishment in states and school districts that continue to allow the practice.
In a letter to governors and state school leaders, U.S. Education Secretary John B. King, Jr., called corporal punishment “harmful, ineffective, and often disproportionately applied to students of color and students with disabilities.”
He urged states that had not yet ended corporal punishment — generally defined as paddling, caning or otherwise using physical force to inflict pain as punishment — to “eliminate this practice from your schools, and instead promote supportive, effective disciplinary measures.”
While corporal punishment is banned in 28 states and the District of Columbia, there are 15 states that permit the practice and seven more that do not expressly prohibit it.
Just he very idea that this even has to be done in 2016 makes me sick to my stomach.
We now know so much about the harmful effects of corporal punishment on the emotional and mental well being of our children, and there are now so many more effective methods for behavior management, that it just seems barbaric that there are still institutions of learning who resort to physically injuring a child in order to gain compliance.
And of course this letter needs to be written now because once Jerry Falwell Jr. replaces John B. King Jr, as our Education Secretary I imagine he will reintroduce public floggings as a form of behavior modification.
Source http://ift.tt/2gj98wl
