In a recent news article it was reported that a state legal
adviser, who told Bristol, Tennessee Director of Schools Gary
Lilly that while school principals who paddled students were
legally protected from allegations of assault, they were not
immune from accusations of inappropriate or improper touching.

Ouch! For the second time in a month, a school district in
Leflore County has been hit with a lawsuit from a student
alleging injuries from a paddling.

An 11-year-old is seeking $500,000 from the Greenwood Public
School District in a suit filed Monday in Leflore County
Circuit Court.

Court documents state a coach caused "severe and painful
injuries" to the student while paddling him in November 2008.

The child's attorney, James Littleton, said photographs show
deep bruising on the then-10-year- old's buttocks and that he
also suffered possible kidney damage.

"It was just unreal the abuse that this child took at the
hands of a teacher," Littleton said.

Paddling has been a hot-button issue of late in Leflore
County. Just last month, the guardian of a 6-year-old
kindergartner filed a $500,000 lawsuit against the Leflore
County School District for alleged paddlings.

It is a mandate of the Surgeon General of the United States
and of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations that patients be kept comfortable and free of
pain. An institution's license to provide medical care can be
in jeopardy if these mandates are ignored.

The United States Department of Education, the United States
Supreme Court and United States Congress must not continue to
ignore research indicating that Physical/Corporal Punishment
of Children in Schools is detrimental to the health and
safety of our nation's children and counterproductive to the
learning environment, lowering children's IQ's. Corporal
Punishment of Children in Schools is an outmoded, ineffective
and dangerous practice that has been banned in more than l00
countries. It puts school districts at risk for lawsuits for
paddling injuries, which is the main reason many districts
already have abandoned it.
Research indicates that spanking lowers children's IQ's.
Research on toddlers and other studies following children
into adolescence found Physical Punishment was BAD FOR
CHILDREN and made them more likely to show anti-social
behavior. Children who were exposed to physical discipline
most frequently were two to three times more likely to show
anti-social behavior as an adolescent, including things like
getting into fights, being disobedient at home or at school,
general delinquency and being in trouble with teachers.
Violence begets violence is a lesson from history not just
child psychology."

Several national children's health and education
organizations have official positions statements OPPOSING
School Corporal Punishment of Children including the American
Medical Association, American Academy of Family Physicians,
American Academy of Pediatrics, American Bar Association, the
National PTA (Parent Teacher Association) and the National
Education Association, among others

Educators powerfully model physical assault/violence as the
acceptable way to solve problems to our children when they
punish them by hitting them with wooden paddles. Paddling is
a lawsuit waiting to happen. In a day when some schools limit
kids from playing tag on the playground for fear of a lawsuit-
inducing injury, school boards are asking for trouble to
sanction a practice that is intended to inflict pain. How
will schools in the 20 remaining states where the outmoded,
ineffective, dangerous practice of Physical/Corporal
punishment of children remains legal possibly maintain order
without the paddle? For ideas, they could start by asking any
of the 30 states that do it every day and that do not use
Corporal Punishment on school children.

Teacher Education Colleges must teach that classroom
management must NEVER involve school employees hitting
children with wooden paddles to deliberately inflict physical
pain and suffering as punishment and stress to children from
fear, humiliation, and anxiety, which also adversely affects
the learning/working environment of all witnessing classmates
and staff.

Rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution, which stipulates that no state may deprive any
person of life, liberty or property without due process of
law, nor deny to any person … the equal protection of
the laws. Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in Schools
is already ILLEGAL in 30 states! For this reason,
Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in Schools is not
equally applied in schools and any law allowing it is
unconstitutional!

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