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From: T3B@psuvm.BITNET
Newsgroups: net.kids,net.legal,net.politics
Subject: corporal punishment in schools
Message-ID: <2149T3B@psuvm>
Date: Mon, 26-Aug-85 08:50:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: psuvm.2149T3B
Posted: Mon Aug 26 08:50:33 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 07:23:58 EDT
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Xref: linus net.kids:1664 net.legal:1815 net.politics:9992

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.  It is "legal" in a curious way: it is not
specifically legalized in statutes, but is permitted in the school
code, written by the Dept. of Education, to be established and
regulated by local School Boards (which are elected in most parts of
the State, but appointed in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh). In my own
district, State College, a university town, the punishment is used
fairly infrequently: perhaps half a dozen times a year, officially.
It is an anomolous situation: the state government's child abuse hotline
specifically refuses to handle any calls relating to abuse of students
by school officials.  The punishment is, I believe, the only case in which,
aside from capital punishment, physical punishment is permitted. For example,
it is clearly against the law to corporally punish prisoners, mental patients,
head start clients, etc.  But public (and private) school students are in
a unique legal and moral situation, where, without appeal, they may be
subjected to the pain and humiliation of a semi-public (it must be
witnessed) beating.
     
I would be interested to see postings that describe the situation in
other areas, and to read the net's views on corporal punishment as a
form of school discipline.
     
-- Tom Benson
   Penn State University
   227 Sparks Bldg., University Park, PA 16802
   814-238-5277 (ATT)
     
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