Adults may paddle students of the opposite sex in Texas

[General Zod]

What's the worse that could happen?

SAN ANTONIO — School administrators will be allowed to paddle students of the opposite sex under a rule approved unanimously Monday night by the school board in the North Texas community of Springtown.

Superintendent Michael Kelley said Tuesday the new policy would ensure both male and female students are treated equally since there are not enough administrators of both genders in some schools in Springtown, which has a population of about 2,600.
Under the previous policy, corporal punishment could only be carried out by an administrator who was of the same gender as the student. The new policy says that a school official of the same gender as the student must be in the room where the paddling takes place and that parents must provide written permission for their child to be paddled.
The punishment involves striking students on their clothed rear with a wooden paddle.
"We don't have a very large district and in our middle school there is only an assistant principal, who is a female," Kelley said. "If the old policy remains in place, then the parents of the boys at the middle school would not be able to request corporal punishment."
Texas is one of 19 states that allow public schools to administer corporal punishment, according to the Center for Effective Discipline. Even in those states, most urban schools have banned the practice and most districts that paddle kids are, like Springtown, small or rural communities. Texas allows parents to opt out of corporal punishment of their children.
In Springtown, which is northwest of Fort Worth, the paddling of two high school girls by a male assistant principal earlier this month prompted the change in policy. Kelley apologized to the girls during Monday night's school board meeting that their paddling violated the policy in place at the time.
It is not unusual for parents in Springtown to contact the school to request paddling for their children for offenses like using profanity or cheating on exams, Kelley said.
Jimmy Dunne, who heads the Texas-based group People Against Paddling Students, called Springtown's new policy "barbaric," and said he hopes it sparks debate that prompts Texas and other states to consider banning the practice.
"Children should not be hit with boards; it is legalized child abuse," Dunne said.
The Texas Association of School Boards recommends that corporal punishment be administered only by an administrator who is the same sex as the student.
Kelley said that corporal punishment works in small towns like Springtown because of the relationship between the district and the parents, most of whom have known each other all their lives.
"They're sitting beside that guy in church and they see that principal in the grocery store or at the restaurant," he said. "They have a sense of trust. So they'll call up and tell us, when their child commits an infraction, those parents will call up and tell that principal, 'Rather than in-school suspension, why don't you just give 'em a swat?'"

[Lonestar]

Stealin' the schools canoe?

That's a paddlin'.

[Zaune]

Not even the Captain Picard Facepalm is adequate for this...

[Hillary]

I appear to be missing the point here. To my mind, the outrageous thing here is that schools are allowed to physically chastise children. The sex of the person doing the chastising is relatively irrelevant.

[Simon_Jester]

There's something a little creepy about a middle-aged man paddling 16-year-old girls, if you think about it that way.

Interesting thought:

"They're sitting beside that guy in church and they see that principal in the grocery store or at the restaurant," he said. "They have a sense of trust. So they'll call up and tell us, when their child commits an infraction, those parents will call up and tell that principal, 'Rather than in-school suspension, why don't you just give 'em a swat?'"

This is kind of missing the point of the detention (or in-school suspension). It's less convenient for the parents because it means, say, picking the kids up from school. But it's supposed to be inconvenient for the parents, because it's there to call attention to the kid's bad behavior and forcing them to figure out their own way to get the kids in line.

[Hillary]

There's something a little creepy about a middle-aged man paddling 16-year-old girls, if you think about it that way.

There's also something creepy about a middle-aged man paddling 16-year-old boys.

[Flagg]

There's something creepy about adults striking children period.

[LaCroix]

There's something creepydespicable about adults striking children period.

Period.

[Simon_Jester]

OK. Fair enough.

Here's a better way to put it:

Having their sixteen year old daughters paddled by a middle aged man is creepy enough that even Texan parents who normally favor corporal punishment think it's creepy.

It being equally creepy for him to be paddling their sons of the same age won't even occur to them because they think homosexuality is something that happens in other, less godly places. And so on.

[Scrib]

By that warped logic it makes sense. In an incredibly dumb way I guess.

Personally I don't see anything creepy about a man spanking a kid (the only possible reason I would even begin to is if I either joined the pedo fear brigade or spent too much time reading erotica) as much as I find it in poor taste, silly and barbaric. The fact that a school can use corporal punishment disgusts me. The fact that it was done with parental consent doesn't make it better.

But a lot of weird shit has come out of Texas schools recently so fuck it, the distinction of "male teacher spanks student" is not really that interesting to me.

[D.Turtle]

Having their sixteen year old daughters paddled by a middle aged man is creepy enough that even Texan parents who normally favor corporal punishment think it's creepy.

Evidence?

[Terralthra]

That the law initially forbade male administrators from paddling female students would seem to be evidence enough.

[Hillary]

OK. Fair enough.

Here's a better way to put it:

Having their sixteen year old daughters paddled by a middle aged man is creepy enough that even Texan parents who normally favor corporal punishment think it's creepy.

It being equally creepy for him to be paddling their sons of the same age won't even occur to them because they think homosexuality is something that happens in other, less godly places. And so on.

To be honest, I was looking at this as a normal human being, rather than as a bigoted redneck with warped values.

If what you say above is true, the irony that their homophobia would give homosexual child abusers far more opportunities than heterosexual child abusers is not lost on me.

[Simon_Jester]

Having their sixteen year old daughters paddled by a middle aged man is creepy enough that even Texan parents who normally favor corporal punishment think it's creepy.

Evidence?

Quite a few of said parents supported a policy by which administrators were forbidden to paddle children of the opposite sex. Presumably they had a reason.

To be honest, I was looking at this as a normal human being, rather than as a bigoted redneck with warped values.

If what you say above is true, the irony that their homophobia would give homosexual child abusers far more opportunities than heterosexual child abusers is not lost on me.

I don't disagree.

Think about all the Catholic pedo scandals; why does it keep happening? I'd guess much of it is denial. No matter how many times the scandals pop up, no one wants to believe that Father X would do such a thing, until someone shows up with four signed testimonials and a selection of photographs.

In this day and age, you have to trust your children with someone or it's nearly impossible to raise them at all. Most people seem to have enough faith in their own judgment not to assume that whoever they trust isn't a child abuser (by their definition of abuse). On average that's probably a good thing, but it's a nightmare in the limited number of cases where an abuser conceals themselves effectively, in a high position of trust.

And that nightmare, that power of denial to keep the abuse going- I'd expect it to be much stronger in a community where people have an exaggerated sense of their own virtue.

[Themightytom]

Not even the Captain Picard Facepalm is adequate for this...

well let's not give up too easy here...



Although I think for texas we should go with something more like