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From: kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Newsgroups: net.kids,net.legal,net.politics
Subject: Re: corporal punishment in schools
Message-ID: <974@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 18:20:09 EDT
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Posted: Fri Aug 30 18:20:09 1985
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> > As a parent, occasional school district committee person, and ACLU
> > member, I've discovered an odd situation here in Pennsylvania.
> > Corporal punishment, administered by a paddle, is occasionally used
> > in our local district.  
> >      
> > -- Tom Benson
> >    Penn State University
> >    227 Sparks Bldg., University Park, PA 16802
> >    814-238-5277 (ATT)
> >      
> >      {akgua,allegra,ihnp4,cbosgd}!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!t3b   (UUCP)
> >      
> >      T3B@PSUVM    (BITNET)           76044,3701  (COMPUSERVE)
> >      
> 
> What's so odd about corporal punishment.  When I was a kid, I used to get it
> in school, and sometimes at home for getting it in school.  Every time I 
> got it, I DESERVED IT.  What I find odd is the amount of abuse teachers get
> from students.  The amount of lack of disipline by students.  The disregard
> of respect for the instructors.  The passionate embraces I'm told occurs
> commonly in public hallways.  The heavy use of drugs on school grounds.  The
> total lack of any kind of dress code.
> These things bother me a lot more than corporal punishment, and believe me
> when I tell you, I know first hand about the paddle (ouch).  
> P.S.  What also bothers me is the ACLU, based on an admittedly small amount
> of information from reading the newspapers.

Funny, I got the paddle several times in jr. high school and I NEVER DESERVED
IT. I won't argue whether or not children may deserve being paddled. But I can
very honestly tell you that I was unjustly accused of wrong doing and paddled
for it. My parents thought that I deserved it until they came to realize that
the Vice Principal guilty of paddling me unjustly had a bit of a screw loose.
This man singled out students that he thought were "bad" and persecuted them.
I will give you just one of many examples to make the point: After learning
about the efficacy of boycotts in American History class, I mentioned jokingly
to a school counselor that the service at the student store (where cokes were
sold at lunch time) was particularly bad when he was waiting on people and
that to get the point across the students should boycott the store when he
was working in it. The counselor laughed. I laughed. The counselor walked
away. I turned around and was collared by the Principal. I was sent to the
Vice Principal (odd eh?) and I was suspended from school for attempting to
start a riot. That is what the official transcript says. He admitted, in front
of my parents, that the evidence of my transgression was my intent to start
a boycott. The man was totally oblivious to the fact that it was said in
jest, and to the fact that a boycott is not a riot. At that point my parents
started to believe I was being persecuted.

As for your other concerns. This vice principal was constantly enforcing the
dress code (walked around with a tape measure to measure girls skirt lengths,
tugged on boys shirts to make sure they were tucked in appropriately and not
"just rolled up", etc.). Schools should concentrate on developing a students
mental discipline and forget about petty garbage like hair length or dress
code.

You are right to be more concerned about drugs and illegal activities on
school grounds. Most of these things are caused by deap seated problems
with our society and the orientation of our schools. We will not solve these
problems by beating our children into submission.