Corporal Punishment

When I was a child I had an extremely hard time sitting still and being quiet in a classroom. One day in second grade, I decided that I wanted to see what was going on outside. Some big hole was being dug up in the school yard and I wanted to know what was happening. I convinced a friend to run out of the classroom with me to look and run back. By the time we got back, someone had told the teacher. The teacher took the little girl and I to the bathroom connected to the classroom and made each of us bend over the sink and she paddled us each 3 times with a large wooden paddle. It was an awful and humiliating experience. We could hear the other students laugh at each smack of the paddle. It was also humiliating because I had talked this other girl into going outside with me. I felt responsible for her being punished. It was an awful experience and even today, it's unpleasant to remember.

I wish that was the last time that I had been paddled in public school, but I got paddled again in Junior High School. This time it was for running in the school office. I still didn't like sitting still! And I still don't like sitting still for long to this day - and thank goodness I don't have anyone telling me that I can't get up when I want to, be curious when I want to, and go running when I want t0 - since running is one of my favorite things to do - other than training on domestic violence. This particular assistant principal seemed particularly sadistic. (I don't think too highly of the second grade teacher who struck me either). He made me bend over a chair and he would raise the paddle within eye-sight, but then he would not strike until he saw you let your guard down. Then he would strike.

It's probably not difficult to guess that I'm not in support of corporal punishment in schools.

Here is an interesting piece of information about corporal punishment in NC schools from the Prevent Child Abuse NC website:

Fact or Fiction: Corporal Punishment in North Carolina Public Schools
Action for Children and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Social Work completed a survey of corporal punishment policies from all 115 local school districts in the state. The issue brief presents an analysis of those policies.
Findings include:
• Sixty local districts still permit corporal punishment.
• Fifty-five local districts ban it, and this number grows each year.
• Virtually all the most populous school districts have banned corporal punishment, so between 70-80% of public school students are not subject to corporal punishment.

For more information go to http://clicks.skem1.com/v/?u=4fd1c8b10653d856a82faef5a50d0744&g=420&c=373&p=0fdc70a1113f467132319a40a048d721&t=1