Paddling Still An Option For Martinsville Schools
By Doug Wilson
Originally published in the Hoosier Times, June 17, 2001
Although one Hoosier Times Corridor school corporation is adapting to societal changes by abolishing corporal punishment, others are bucking the national trend by continuing to paddle students.
In fact, administrators at Martinsville High School paddled students 398 times during the 1997-98 school year, according to a report the school submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.
Jim Rubush, assistant superintendent for Richland-Bean Blossom schools in Ellettsville, called R-BB's current policy allowing corporal punishment "a dinosaur that's been on the books a long time and wasn't being used."
The R-BB school board is expected Monday night to approve a policy outlawing paddling.
"What would have been accepted decades ago is no longer accepted by society in general," Rubush said.
Indiana is one of 23 states in which corporal punishment is still allowed, according to the Center for Effective Discipline in Columbus, Ohio.
Corridor school corporations permitting corporal punishment include those in Martinsville and Mitchell, among others. The Monroe County Community School Corp. abolished the practice about 10 years ago.
Of area schools submitting a March 1999 civil rights report to the U.S. Department of Education, Martinsville High School, by far, paddled the most students. The 398 paddlings included 291 boys, 73 girls and 34 students with disabilities.
Randy Taylor, assistant principal at Martinsville High School, said the numbers presented in the federal report seem too high. He estimates a couple of students a week are paddled at the school.
Students aren't forced to be paddled, Taylor said. They are given the option of a paddling, rather than other disciplinary actions such as detention or suspension. He said they often choose paddling because it is quick and doesn't require them to miss work or after-school activities.
Students are swatted with a paddle once, or sometimes twice if they've been in trouble repeatedly, he said. He said female students are paddled by a female administrator and students with severe disabilities aren't paddled.
"Sometimes it works and we never see them in the office again," Taylor said.
Sandi Cole, director of the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning at Indiana University, said studies have demonstrated corporal punishment causes increased truancy, fighting and other undesirable behaviors.
Cole said most schools are emphasizing to students that discussion, not violence, is the most effective way to solve problems and corporal punishment contradicts this approach.
