One smack for disobeying. Two smacks for shoving another student. The idea of a school official hitting a child with a wooden paddle might sound archaic, like a throwback to the days of the one-room schoolhouse. But corporal punishment, which includes spanking, paddling, and hitting children to punish misbehavior, is legal in public schools in . It is also legal in private schools in every state except Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Iowa. And while not all schools in those states use physical force to discipline students, many of them do.
The estimates 70,000 students are physically punished each year, even for minor infractions like disobedience, misbehavior on the bus, inappropriate language, and skipping classes. Students in Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee receive the most corporal discipline. Elementary school students tend to receive corporal punishment . are physically punished twice as often as caucasian children.
Some schools require parental consent before students are spanked or paddled, but many do not. At some schools, students can choose between corporal punishment and detention and many schools specify a maximum number of 鈥渓icks鈥� or 鈥渟wats鈥� a student may receive. Many school district policies are vague. At in Dale County, AL, teachers have 鈥� to use appropriate means of discipline up to and including corporal punishment鈥� to ensure order in their classrooms. Students in the district may also receive corporal punishment if they violate the school鈥檚 dress code more than once by wearing things like sweat pants, tank tops, or skirts that are too short.
Proponents of corporal punishment, who include some parents and educators in their ranks, say that hitting kids teaches them that there are consequences for bad behavior.
But experts agree that corporal punishment doesn鈥檛 improve student behavior and doesn’t work. Corporal punishment has lasting, harmful effects for the children who are hit. And corporal punishmen is . The research backs up the experts.
鈥淚t’s never successful,” says George Holden, a professor and developmental psychologist at Southern Methodist University. “There are always better solutions to dealing with child problems than hitting a child.”
Spare the rod and spoil the child? No.
even in the short term. “The actual short-term impacts on students are fear, anger, and physical pain,鈥� says Elizabeth Gershoff, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin鈥檚 Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. She notes that young adults who experience corporal punishment often report that it also leaves them 鈥渨anting revenge.鈥�
And in the long term, being hit by adults shapes the way children view violence, with consequences that play out throughout their lives. George Holden, the professor from Southern Methodist University, notes that corporal punishment has been linked to depression, anger, and hostility. “If it’s done enough to children, it teaches them to use aggression, and they will use it throughout their development and as they get older,” he says, noting that this aggression may play out in future relationships with spouses and children.
Most of the research on the psychological effects of corporal punishment looks at physical punishment inflicted by parents at home, but Holden believes that the consequences of spanking students at school are just as severe. 鈥淐hildren who are paddled in most cases in the U.S. are not necessarily compliant and better students, but just the opposite,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey do worse, they have mental health problems, they’re embarrassed about it, they don’t want to go to school because of it. There’s a whole slew of problems associated with it.鈥�
The move toward positive discipline
Even in states where corporal punishment is legal, schools are increasingly moving away from the practice. In North Carolina, for example, districts that formerly used corporal punishment .
was one of the last school districts in North Carolina to make the switch. For years, parents could opt into the district鈥檚 corporal punishment policy, and some did — possibly because while corporal punishment in schools may seem outdated to some, 42 percent of parents polled in a admitted they use physical punishment to discipline their child, at least once a month. For many American parents, spanking is viewed as occasionally necessary for disciplining a child.
When the in the district, the proposal passed by just one vote. Many parents in the district lobbied against the change. At an elementary school PTO meeting just before the board鈥檚 vote, . Parents that they wanted to be able to choose how their children were disciplined in school. School administrators, though, were ready for the policy to go.
鈥淚t was time,鈥� says Karen Brooks-Floyd, Robeson County鈥檚 assistant superintendent for administration, community engagement, and auxiliary services. 鈥淲e needed to find alternative ways to help our students.鈥� Now, instead of using corporal punishment, the district uses a multi-tiered system of supports to help students with behavioral problems. For example, school counselors teach all students skills like empathy, and help students learn to recognize bullying and harassment. The district also has school social workers and a youth development specialist who work carefully with teachers to develop individual behavior plans for students who need them.
Instead of responding with violence when students misbehave, teachers and support staff at Robeson schools focus on helping students learn to replace bad behaviors with good ones. The idea is to teach students coping mechanisms and skills that will set them up for success, rather than focusing on punishment. 鈥淲e have to remember that behaviors are taught,鈥� Brooks-Floyd says. 鈥淚t is very important to focus on the whole child and their needs.鈥�
And it works. Studies have shown that when schools move away from corporal punishment, fewer students are suspended. 鈥淪chools throughout the country have been able to successfully manage children鈥檚 behavior without corporal punishment,鈥� says Gershoff, noting that positive discipline does not mean no discipline. Positive behavioral interventions like the ones that Robeson schools now use are a particularly popular alternative, she says, because they reward and encourage good behavior while avoiding the damaging effects of physical punishment.
Putting an end to corporal punishment
The surest way to end the practice of corporal punishment in schools would be through a legislative ban, but state and federal initiatives to stop the practice have so far been unsuccessful. Federal legislation seeking to ban corporal punishment .
State initiatives also struggle to garner support. In Kentucky, state Representative Steve Riley filed a bill to end corporal punishment every year for multiple years, but it did not pass. Riley is a retired school administrator who grew up attending a school that used corporal punishment. There, he says, the same students were spanked over and over again, and they were most often the ones who came from difficult backgrounds. 鈥淭hey need to be loved,鈥� he says. Not paddled. Finally, in 2023, his efforts were rewarded. .
Worldwide, have either fully prohibited corporal punishment or they have expressed commitment to making legal changes to achieve a complete ban.
How to find out whether a school uses corporal punishment
Schools are required to report whether they use corporal punishment. As of 2024, corporal punishment is . So, if you live in one of the states that still practice it, here鈥檚 how you can find out how often your school has used this violent form of discipline.
Visit the Department of Education鈥檚 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) website at . Enter your school鈥檚 name, then choose your state from the drop-down menu, and click on the Search button. When the results are shown, click on the 鈥渟chool detail鈥� link to the right of your school鈥檚 name. On the school detail page, find the box on the lower right side of the page. Then, click on the Discipline Report link to see the corporal punishment statistics at your school.
