What is this, the 1950s? Missouri school has no business paddling students’ buttocks

I remember being spanked as a child. Those butt lashings stung but didn’t last as long nor hurt as badly as the shame I felt. So when I became a parent, I decided I would never spank my boys. I never have.

That’s why I was gobsmacked when I learned that in 2022, not only are some Missouri schools still spanking children, but last week in one district, parents suggested that their children be paddled at school. What?

That practice was rightly banned in most states decades ago.

The Cassville School District in southwest Missouri announced it is bringing back corporal punishment, but “only in reasonable form,” and only when “all other alternative means of discipline have failed.”

Yes, Missouri law allows for local school districts to decide it’s not abuse when, in the name of discipline, a child is hit by “certificated personnel and in the presence of a witness who is an employee of the school district.”

That law should be rebuked and abolished. I don’t know exactly how many districts in Missouri paddle kids. The state department of education doesn’t track it.

Missouri lawmakers wrongly want to ban schools from teaching children about slavery and other American history truths. But continuing to let school leaders spank children who might act out in school — that’s OK?

It shouldn’t be. This isn’t the 1950s.

There is no form of discipline in which a teacher or principal intentionally causes a child physical pain — what corporal punishment is — that should be considered “reasonable.”

School leaders should not be paddling children, period.

Not all Cassville students would be subject to this form of punishment, because a parent would have to opt in. Who’s doing that?

Most parents don’t want anyone touching their child, let alone allowing someone “swatting buttocks with a paddle,” which is how the student handbook refers to the discipline. Specifically, one or two swats for younger children and three swats for older ones. Striking a student across the face or head is specifically prohibited.

Cassville school officials aren’t saying how many parents have agreed to this old-school form of discipline. The district spokesperson declined to answer any of my questions. “Our policies are posted on our website,” Mindi Artherton said. “Now we are going to focus on educating our students. Thank you,” she said, and then hung up.

The idea for disciplinary alternatives came out of a survey. Parents apparently don’t want their children to be suspended for misbehaving. But would they rather have them paddled?

Yes, it seems. Superintendent Meryln Johnson told news media that parents requested the district “look into it.” Some parents actually asked, “Why can’t you paddle my student?” Johnson said.

Let’s start with the fact that striking children is not only an archaic form of discipline, but there’s enough research telling us that spanking doesn’t help.

“It doesn’t work,” said Alan Kazdin, professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University. “You cannot punish out these behaviors that you do not want.”

Widely condemned around the world, corporal punishment is still allowed in some parts of the Middle East and Africa and in 19 states in the U.S. Most of them are in the South.

Schools have moved away from punitive action. Many don’t even suspend students anymore, because research shows that Black and brown boys are disproportionately suspended and expelled from school. Suspension only means the child misses out on education and falls behind.

Districts such as Kansas City Public Schools, Raytown and North Kansas City have moved to restorative justice solutions — building up, not tearing down a child’s dignity.

Corporal punishment can wrongly teach children that conflict is resolved with violence.

I felt ashamed being spanked at home. I can’t imagine being singled out in front of schoolmates and hustled to the principal’s office for a witnessed paddling.

Should parents really be asking school leaders to spank their children? I do think that Superintendent Johnson — who began his 23-year career in education teaching at a maximum-security prison in Newport, Arkansas and came to the Cassville district a year ago — should find a better way.