A school district has sparked a heated debate after reinstating spanking as corporal punishment for disobedient students.
Cassville R-IV School District is a Missouri school district that reinstated the long-lost method of punishment after a number of parents allegedly asked for their kids to be spanked rather than face suspensions for bad behavior.
“It shall be used only when all other alternative means of discipline have failed. It should never be inflicted in the presence of other students,” Superintendent Merlyn Johnson said as he vowed to bring back the wooden paddle for the 2022-23 school year.
The school district further claimed that the punishment will be carried out in the presence of a witness but not in front of other children.
Related policy on the matter also states that the punishment will cause no “bodily injury or harm” to the students.
“There had been a conversation with parents and there had been requests from parents for us to look into it. We’ve had people actually thank us for it,” Johnson told the Springfield News-Leader.
While the implementation of spanking has been well-received by many parents, others have objected to this practice and called it “brutal” and “outdated.”
Since the announcement, there have also been concerns about how the “reasonable physical force” supposed to be used during the punishment will be measured and how it will be ensured that the force won’t be excessive and cause physical injuries to children.
“Surprisingly, those on social media would probably be appalled to hear us say these things, but the majority of people that I’ve run into have been supportive,” the superintendent insisted.
Meanwhile, however, plenty of parents of children attending schools in the affected district spoke out to express their disagreement with the new policy.
“In-school suspension that would be fine with me, or even out of school suspensions. Those are just way better than corporal punishment,” one mother said.
Another argued: “We live in a really small community where people were raised a certain way and they’re kind of blanketed in that fact that they grew up having discipline and swats.
“And so, for them, it’s like going back to the good old days but it’s not because it’s going to do more harm than good at the end of the day.”
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