Georgia school seeks parental consent to paddle misbehaving students
A school in Georgia is implementing a policy that will allow administrators to discipline students by paddling them.
Parents at the Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics, a K-9 charter school in Hephzibah, Georgia, received consent forms from the institution seeking permission for administrators to hit their children with a wooden paddle should they need to be disciplined, WRDW-TV reported.
Jody Boulineau, the superintendent at the school, told WRDW-TV that the school has received about 100 forms back from parents, with about a third of them giving consent.
"In this school, we take discipline very seriously," Boulineau told the outlet. "There was a time where corporal punishment was kind of the norm in school and you didn't have the problems that you have."
This form of corporal punishment is "just one more tool" for discipline administrators can use, Boulineau said. Parents are not required to provide consent. They can deny to allow the form of punishment be used and instead agree to a misbehaving child being suspended for up to five days.
According to WRDW-TV, the consent forms state that "a student will be taken into an office behind closed doors. The student will place their hands on their knees or piece of furniture and will be struck on the buttocks with a paddle" no more than three times.
The school is continuing its three strike policy, and misbehaving students will only receive the punishment on their third strike. Parents will be contacted before their child receives a paddling.
Boulineau said parental response has been mixed. Some parents are happy the corporal punishment is back, while others are shocked. The school is the only one in the area that will enact the new policy.
Although controversial, paddling students is legal in Georgia and 19 other states, according to CBS News.
Copyright 2017 U.S. News & World Report
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