Louisiana School District May Stop Paddling to Avoid Lawsuits

Emily Peters / The Town Talk Posted on October 12, 2003 Sometimes, Rapides Parish students have to face a few swift swats to the backside to pay the price for misbehaving at school.

But the Rapides Parish School Board is paying the real price in defense costs when some parents sue the school system because their children face corporal punishment at school.

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"It's just a personal conviction," he said. "If the student's a discipline problem to the point he needs paddling, I send him home and let the parents deal with it. The punishment is a little more effective when you get parents involved than just popping him on the butt and letting him go."

Therein lies the rub - far too many parents WON'T deal with it. That's why the kids act the way they do in the first place.

Unfortunately, there are also cases where paddling does not good at all. These kids have gone so far off the deep end, that a paddling only re-enforces the anti-authority mentality.

As a tenth-year teacher, I firmly believe that corporal punishment should remain as a tool for administrators, but should not be the only tool.

We never had corporal punishment in NJ public schools. New Jersey students aren't any worse than Louisiana students.

Well, it used to be that when you needed to be paddled at school that was just the beginning of your "reward" for bad behavior. If you caused any trouble at school you would be taken care of at home too. Now days if a teacher/principal even *thinks* about disciplining a brat the parents see $$$$$$.

Having been on the receiving end of La. paddlings conducted in "guilt-by-association" sweeps, I am strongly against the paddlings. I was a good kid who never did anything wrong, other than be in the same hallway with other kids who did misbehave. La. teachers are too lazy to try and figure out who was actually acting up, so they would just grab a group and start leveling swats. Think I'm kidding? I was in groups as large as 25 kids getting swatted because we were all in the hallway (between classes) at the same time when some kids decided to start acting up.

I was also swatted for being happy and whistling in the hall between classes because my brother and sister were returning for vacation from boarding schools that evening.

Kids don't behave today because parents exercise NO discipline at home and believe that their offspring are perfect little angels. Also, kids know that all they have to do is call the Department of Children and Families and complain about abuse to make mom and dad's lives miserable.

Frankly, were I the parent of one of those kids, I'd let the DFC take them and let them see how much better they think life is in an institution. I might also take my time trying to get them back, just to ensure that the lesson is thoroughly learned.

But. La. needs to stop paddling. It's ineffective and, too often, targets kids who are innocent. Just ask me.

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