Do middle schools and high schools still use the paddle for discipline?

I graduated high school in the late 60’s & atleast at my school, the girls were exempt from the paddle. For the boys, the paddle had holes drilled in it so it would leave a lasting impression when it was applied to a bare butt. Of course, way back then, IF you got the paddle at school, it meant that dad had a belt with your name on it just waiting for you to get home from school. My understanding is that the paddle was banned a good number of years ago when parents felt that their little angels were not being treated fairly. Who knows, some school districts may have brought it back, but I think that’s one of those things that once it;s gone, it’s NEVER rediscovered!!! Hell, most parents don’t believe in spanking their own child, so I can’t imagine them agreeing to the schools doing it for them!!!

Corporal punishment laws in the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_corporal_punishment_in_the_United_States

Not in my experience, of having raised two kids of my own and 8 grand kids. Corporal punishment went out years ago. Even when my own two were kids, the worst that could happen was after hours ISS (In school suspension). Nothing more. But that’s in Central Texas. Can’t speak for other states/ regions.

Only once in grade 2 a boy was ‘strapped” for pulling the fire alarm( he was put up to it by other boys and he was disabled and clearly not able to pull it).

Since then it was never used again and with my children answered NO to punishment’s dished out by teachers( some cruel) and preferred to have them talk with my children about it and then the parents.
Always worked out well and kids were respected and dealt with maturely and as a result, rare occurrences occurred.

I would hope not.

I’m not surprised to see it’s illegal in California and Nevada (where I’ve lived) and I agree wholeheartedly with it being illegal. The kids who were the most “problematic” in my classes growing up all had mental and emotional issues. The days when dealing with those issues with violence were in vogue are over.

No. Not allowed to hit students.

It IS still done.

Guess where?

Here’s a report on Corporal Punishment in U.S. Public Schools: Prevalence, Disparities in Use, and Status in State and Federal Policy , which starts out:

“School corporal punishment is currently legal in 19 states, and over 160,000 children in these states are subject to corporal punishment in schools each year. Given that the use of school corporal punishment is heavily concentrated in Southern states, and that the federal government has not included corporal punishment in its recent initiatives about improving school discipline, public knowledge of this issue is limited.”

Huh. Interesting.

“The Society for Adolescent Medicine (2003) has estimated that between 10,000 and 20,000 students require medical attention as a result of school corporal punishment each year. These injuries likely result from the use of objects, such as paddles, to hit the children.”

I know when I lived in Tennessee (2005–2012) Mississippi still was using corporal punishment in some of their schools. There were cases reported on TV once in a while of a child winding up with welts on their backside from a paddle. I couldn’t believe it. Those were elementary age cases, but the wife of a coworker of my husband worked in a high school and they still had corporal punishment. I couldn’t believe it.

I know I’m repeating myself.

I lived outside of Memphis and a lot of Memphis parents complained that there was no longer corporal punishment in Memphis schools. I don’t know when they got rid of it. The way they talked about it, it seemed like it was a recent change.

I swear I just had a flashback of someone telling me when I started school in Maryland that if I get in trouble I could get paddled (I was in 5th grade). I didn’t know what it was. I don’t think it was true, I never heard of anyone getting hit in my schools. Not in NY and not in MD. Only in the private schools. I just googled and it looks like it was made illegal in public schools in Maryland in 1993.

Edit: @jca2 Wow, the table on the Wikipedia link, New Jersey banned it in the 1800’s!

People that I know that went to Catholic school during the 50’s – 70’s tell me stories about the nuns and the Brothers and how awful they were with slapping, rulers, punching. The Brothers sound like they were very abusive.

@Zaku That report is shocking. Here is one figure showing the maximum number of students in a school district corporally punished.

~I can hear it now: How else they gonna to learn?

Back in the olden days (60’s in LA County, CA) when I was in 1st through 6th grades the paddle (sometimes with holes drilled in then) where on display above the black boards. Never seen a paddle used on anyone. Just the sight of that paddle on display was enough to keep us in line.

My kindergarten teacher was the meanest teacher I ever had. If looks could kill I wouldn’t be here. One time she embarrassed me in front of the other kids and made me cry. I’m nearly 70 years old and can still remember how she lied to me and repeatedly grabbed my face with her hands and kept me isolated in her office while other kids enjoyed cookies, cake and fruit punch. My crime was being an ugly looking kid and talking during nap time on 2 occasions.

It’s been proven that corporal punishment causes aggression in some young children, it would be monumentally stupid if schools used it as a form of punishment

@gondwanalon…God I’m so sorry.

Ditto @Dutchess_III. Is that evil witch still alive? Find me an oak tree and give me a rope. @gondwanalon

I read a few years ago there about 1500 US schools with corporal punishment policies, mostly in Southern states, mostly private schools.