How shocking is this? And how sad it is that our world is so crazy that this is not something that makes to a Human Rights, UN, or something alike's discussion: the use of corporal punishment by professionals who are paid to educate our children! I sometimes wonder what it would take to make hitting children something illegal for parents to do and look how far we still are. Sometimes psychology professionals known as behavior analysts are accused of using punishment to teach children. When we have been discussing for so many years how punishment in general affects behavior, and for so many years corporal punishment is not used as a behavior change strategy anymore. Decades! The profession evolved with research on behavior change strategies (studying the effects of punishment) as well as with public policy which took away rights to punish children. Any children, I don't even want to talk about children with disabilities because it makes me sick.
The report, based on federal Department of Education data, said that of the 223,190 public school students nationwide who were paddled during the 2006-7 school year, at least 41,972, or about 19 percent, were students with disabilities, who make up 14 percent of all students.
As recently as the 1970s, only two states had laws banning corporal punishment, but 28 others have since passed similar legislation. Corporal punishment is still permitted in some form in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming."
