Corporal Punishment in Schools: A Contentious Relic

Corporal punishment in schools remains a controversial topic, sparking debates about discipline, harm, and children's rights. While many countries have outlawed it, the United States remains divided, with varying state laws and persistent disparities in its application.

Prevalence and Legal Status

In the United States, the legality of corporal punishment in schools varies by state. As of 2024, 33 states and the District of Columbia have banned corporal punishment in public schools. However, 19 states, predominantly in the Southeast, still permit it. These states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. New Mexico was the most recent state to ban corporal punishment in public schools in 2011.

It is important to note that even in states where corporal punishment is banned, incidents of its use may still occur. Furthermore, the use of corporal punishment in private schools is legally permitted in nearly every state, with only New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland, New York and Illinois prohibiting it in both public and private schools.

The prevalence of school corporal punishment has decreased since the 1970s, declining from four percent of the total number of children in schools in 1978 to less than one percent in 2014. In the 2002-2003 school year, federal statistics estimated that 300,000 children were disciplined with corporal punishment at school at least once. By 2022, the number of students spanked by their teachers had dropped to approximately 70,000.

Definition and Methods

Corporal punishment is defined as a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to unacceptable behavior or inappropriate language. The immediate aims of such punishment are usually to halt the offense, prevent its recurrence, and set an example for others. The purported long-term goal is to change the child's behavior and make it more consistent with the adult's expectations.

Read also: Impact of Teacher Shouting

Physical punishment in schools typically involves an adult hitting a child with a two-foot-long wooden board, often referred to as a "paddle." However, the methods and implementation of corporal punishment can vary widely, with no consistently implemented system in use within or across states. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with students and teachers in Mississippi and Texas, finding that most corporal punishment was for minor infractions, such as violating the dress code, being tardy, talking in class, running in the hallway, and going to the bathroom without permission.

Arguments For and Against

Arguments in Favor

Some individuals believe that corporal punishment is necessary to teach discipline and obedience to children. They may see it as an effective way to change a child's behavior for the good or as a last possible option when other solutions have been exhausted. Some who experienced corporal punishment themselves believe that it helped keep them in line.

Sarah Font, a professor of sociology and public policy at Washington University in St. Louis, notes that support for corporal punishment is often driven by a belief that it is necessary or at least effective in deterring disobedience and instilling proper respect for authority figures.

Arguments Against

Opponents of corporal punishment argue that it is harmful to children's welfare and infringes on parents' rights. They point to research showing that corporal punishment may be harmful and that many other methods of discipline are effective in promoting self-control, eliminating undesirable behaviors, and promoting desired behaviors in children.

Professor Elizabeth Gershoff told Newsweek that decreasing rates of corporal punishment make it easier for states to ban it because so few schools still use it and defend it. She added that the potential harms linked to corporal punishment are so well-known now that principals are less inclined to use it, and parents are less inclined to accept it.

Justin Driver, a professor of law at Yale Law School, calls corporal punishment in schools a barbaric measure from a bygone era, arguing that the notion that hitting students is somehow necessary to maintain order and discipline is belied by reams of research.

Disparities in Application

There is significant concern about disabled children and children of color being disproportionately targeted by corporal punishment. According to an OCR report, corporal punishment has been found to occur more frequently with students who are male, poor, and ethnic minority.

Black students are physically punished at higher rates than white or Hispanic students. One study found that African-American students were 2.5 times more likely than white students and 6.5 times more likely than Hispanic students to be physically punished. Another study found that black children in Alabama and Mississippi were over five times more likely to be disciplined with corporal punishment than their white counterparts.

Children with disabilities are also at a higher risk of experiencing school corporal punishment. They are 50 percent more likely to experience it in more than 30 percent of the school districts in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. When race and gender are considered together, black boys are 16 times as likely to be subject to corporal punishment as white girls. Among children with disabilities, black boys have the highest probability of being subject to corporal punishment, followed by white boys, black girls, and white girls.

Potential Harms and Long-Term Effects

Research suggests that corporal punishment in schools can have several negative consequences for students. Children exposed to it are more likely to have conduct disorder problems, experience feelings of inadequacy and resentment, be aggressive and violent, and experience reduced problem-solving abilities, social competence, and academic achievement.

Other studies have suggested that corporal punishment in schools can deter children's cognitive development, leading to a more restricted vocabulary, poorer school marks, and lower IQ scores. Moreover, disparities in the use of corporal punishment among gender, race, and disability status can be perceived by children as discrimination.

Students who are not exposed to school corporal punishment exhibit better results on the ACT test compared to students in states that allow disciplinary corporal punishment in schools. In 2010, 75 percent of states that allow corporal punishment in schools scored below average on the ACT composite, while three-quarters of non-paddling states scored above the national average.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

The legality of corporal punishment in schools has been challenged in the courts. In 1977, the Supreme Court upheld its legality in the landmark Ingraham v. Wright case. The court ruled that the corporal punishment of James Ingraham, who was restrained and paddled over twenty times, ultimately requiring medical attention, did not violate the Eighth Amendment, which protects citizens from cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling firmly pushed the decision of whether or not to outlaw corporal punishment in schools onto state legislators.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry opposes the use of corporal punishment in schools and takes issue with laws in some states legalizing such corporal punishment and protecting adults who use it from prosecution for child abuse. The United States' National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) also opposes the practice.

International Perspective

Corporal punishment in school has been outlawed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and most developed countries in Europe, making the United States one of only two developed countries where corporal punishment in school is still allowed, the other being Singapore. The USA has signed but not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Alternatives to Corporal Punishment

A large number of effective, age-appropriate, nonviolent, and evidence-based alternatives to corporal punishment exist to promote desired student behaviors. These include:

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
Restorative justice
Conflict resolution
Mentoring
Individual therapy
Curricula to support social-emotional learning

The Role of Social Networks

Even if several US states have approved strong immunity laws, there is always a risk for a principal or a teacher to be sued in court by parents who estimate that the corporal punishment went too far. The existence of social networks exposes the school administrator to public criticism and personal attack. In Texas, several principals have seen their certificate put at risk because of corporal punishments administered in previous school districts. The presence of a witness during paddling is intended to protect the school administrator from any accusation of sexual abuses.

The Path Forward

The trend of abolition has slowed, with a handful of southern jurisdictions accounting for the lion's share of physical assaults of students. However, decreasing rates of corporal punishment make it easier for states to ban it because so few schools still use it and defend it.

Several states have banned physical punishment from settings that care for children, namely child care centers, foster homes, and juvenile justice facilities. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, Prevent Child Abuse America, and numerous other national and local organizations are asking states to do for schools only what they have already done for other settings - protect children from physical assaults by the adults charged with their care and education.

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