Should administrators and teachers use corporal punishment to discipline students?

• Corporal punishment is prohibited in prisons, the military and mental institutions. Schools are the only public institutions in the United States, where hitting another person is legally sanctioned (Ferraro & Weinreich, 2006).

• Instead of focusing on the misbehavior, the teacher who paddles a student is not only causing immediate physical pain and suffering, but also may be breaking down the child’s psychological defenses, leading to withdrawal, depression, and anxiety or to anger and rebellion (Ferraro & Weinreich, 2006).

• “When children see adults inflicting pain on other children, they learn to do the same to their smaller and weaker peers” (Ferraro & Weinrich, 2006, p. 42).

• Military personnel and criminals have the right to due process before corporal punishment can be imposed as a matter of federal law, school children, on the contrary, do not (Hinchey, 2004).

• Paddlings are deemed as unconstitutional, and are in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and also in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of due process (Hinchey, 2004).

• Corporal punishment most often produces in its victim’s anger, resentment, and low self-esteem. It teaches violence and revenge as solutions to problems, and perpetuates itself, as children imitate what they see adults doing (Paintal, 2007).

• Corporal punishment increases the probability of children assaulting the parent in retaliation, especially as they grow older (Paintal, 2007).

• Corporal punishment is degrading, and contributes to feelings of helplessness and humiliation. It robs a child of their self-worth and self-respect (Paintal, 2007).

• Children who get spanked regularly are more likely overtime to cheat or lie, be disobedient at school, bully others, and show less remorse for wrongdoing (Paintal, 2007).

• A line must be drawn between disciplinary spanking and physical abuse. Spanking is entirely inappropriate for very young children (less than age 2) and equally inappropriate for children who are mature enough to be punished by withholding privileges for inappropriate behavior (Miller, 2002).

• Corporal punishment plays a role in multiple ills such as depression, domestic violence, suicide, child abuse, infant homicide, delinquency, school violence, bondage and masochistic sex, and alienation (Webb, 2007).