Alabama Schools Paddled Over 19,000 Kids In One School Year (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

Most schools in the U.S. have stopped the physical paddling of children. One of the few holdouts is my state, Alabama. During the 2013 – 2014 school year, Alabama spanked over 19,000 children.

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur said:

“I don’t anticipate this being the focus of change that Alabama needs to move our student achievement higher.”

Collins also said:

“As a child paddled, and as a parent who paddled, I’ve not experienced the negative side of corporal punishment personally, only the positive side.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools are allowed to administer corporal punishment in 1977. Most states did not use that option. Only 21 states still report corporal punishment in public schools.

More boys get paddled than girls; 35 percent of those boys who got paddled were Black. The racial disparity is higher with the girls, though. Half of the girls who were paddled were Black.

Dr. Amir Whitaker, an attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center who has studied the effects of paddling on the students said:

“It’s a very convenient and knee-jerk reaction to discipline. And it does nothing but harm the child. All the research shows that, and all the experts know that.”

“Research clearly says you’re more likely to be aggressive if someone is aggressive with you. You’re more likely to physically abuse someone if someone has physically abused you.”

Spanking, in general, has been found to be bad for children later in life.

Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, a leading researcher on physical punishment at the University of Texas at Austin said:

“Physical punishment doesn’t work to get kids to comply, so parents think they have to keep escalating it. That is why it is so dangerous.”

The Parent Management Training program headed by Alan Kazdin at Yale says that parents should use positive reinforcement. They say that you should use time-outs often and reward good behaviors. They believe that the parents should learn to stay calm during a child’s temper tantrum.

Here is a clip showing a child crying at a school in Georgia (which also allows paddling). (TRIGGER WARNING)

Featured image via YouTube screenshot.

Hi, I'm from Huntsville, AL. I'm a Liberal living in the Bible Belt, which can be quite challenging at times. I'm passionate about many issues including mental health, women's rights, gay rights, and many others. Check out my blog weneedtotalkaboutmentalhealth.com