Posted on 10/07/2005 7:04:24 AM PDT by Crackingham
Despite what Bart Simpson might say, repetitive writing of sentences on the blackboard -- as seen at the beginning of every episode of "The Simpsons" -- is not corporal punishment. Neither is running an extra lap around the track or standing in a corner. But swatting a kid's bottom is, and that form of discipline is on its way to being outlawed in Pennsylvania public schools.
The Independent Regulatory Review Commission yesterday voted 5-0 to add Pennsylvania to the list of 28 other states that ban corporal punishment in public schools.
The regulations don't take effect until they are published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which State Board of Education executive director Jim Buckheit said could happen by the end of next month. The Bulletin is the state's official publication for information and new regulations.
State Board of Education member Edith Isacke, who led the campaign for the corporal punishment ban, was pleased by the commission's unanimous vote. The Legislature still could block the ban from taking effect, and Isacke said, "I won't breathe of sigh of relief until they are published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin."
The commission-approved regulations bar educators from using physical discipline that causes pain and fear, but would permit school officials to defend themselves. At present, only 18 districts -- none in the midstate -- in Pennsylvania use corporal punishment, Isacke said.
The House Education Committee last week urged the regulatory review commission to disapprove the regulations. Legislators argued that removing this classroom-management option would tie teachers' hands. But Carol Karl of the Pennsylvania State Education Association told the commission yesterday that teachers don't want that tool.
School psychologists warn against using corporal punishment, and school nurses say it violates their responsibility to care for children, she said. And the education association's lawyers "believe that there's a legal vulnerability for both the teacher ... and the school if they participate in striking the student in school," Karl said.
She was a cute girl once upon a time.
Maybe a good spanking or two would have kept her on the straight and narrow....
"...repetitive writing of sentences on the blackboard -- as seen at the beginning of every episode of "The Simpsons" -- is not corporal punishment. Neither is running an extra lap around the track or standing in a corner."
I don't know where they're getting this from. I supervise principal and superintendent interns. Several of them often report back to me about supposed incidents of "corporal punishment" involving having a student stand in front of the room, write sentences 50 times, etc.
The regulation mentions "pain" and "fear" -- a lawyer can push those feelings way beyond a whack on the butt.
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