OK? Not OK?

[Parr8hed]

https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-principal-under-investigation-after-paddling-6-year-old-child/

[ChrisL]

Not OK.  I know corporal punishment is a touchy matter with some so I’ll not go there but a school administrator should not be touching a student. 

[goldendesign]

Definitely not OK. 

[Kzoo]

Just now, ChrisL said:

Not OK.  I know corporal punishment is a touchy matter with some so I’ll not go there but a school administrator should not be touching a student. 

Hey, I turned out OK, just ask Ralph.

But no it's not OK.  FL allows corporal punishment, OK I get it.  But this school district does not AND if the interaction reported is true, the principal's demeanor did noting to help.

AND, what mother stands there and lets the school official beat on her daughter without stepping in.  She allows it to happen and now it's not OK??

[Wilbur ★]

Corporal punishment was allowed when I was a kid and it had both positive and negative outcomes.  I have no problem with it within a family as not all children respond to reason and logic.  My wife and I were never users of it but some might suggest "grounding" of children to be abusive.  

The problem I have is that it often satisfies the anger of the parent rather than fix behavioural issues of the child.   I would have used that paddle on the administrator if that was my kid.  No educator should have the approval to inflict physical nor psychological pain on a child. 

[MickinMD ★]

As a retired public school teacher, paddling a child is unquestionably NOT ok, unless the law saws that paddling is ok in schools and it is illegal in the school district where it happened.

1) Teachers are under the legal requirements of "Loco Parentis" ("in the place of a parent") where the wishes of the parent take precedence and must be respected and adhered to if they are legal. Just as it would be wrong for a Christian teacher to try to convert a Jewish student to Christianity, other beliefs of families need to be respected.

2) If you've been a teacher or administrator long enough, you KNOW better than to do certain controversial things - even if they are legal!  I spent three decades dancing around certain issues, making sure I didn't say or do things that were stupid or could be misinterpreted.  EVERY teacher does.

When our Homecoming Queen walked into class before the bell and started telling me a dirty joke, I cut her off as soon as I realized what it was - even though I wished I could have heard the ending.  When three pretty girls wanted to know how much longer we had to wait outside in the cold due to a bomb scare because, "Our headlights are on," I made sure I didn't look at their boobs, I just gave them a dropped-open-mouth look of disbelief for saying it - after it took me a couple seconds to realize what they meant.

When I hear of teachers doing assignments like, "How would you treat your own slaves?" that might help students understand the difference in thinking in slave-owning cultures from now, my first thought is, "How f'ing stupid can you get?"  Teachers KNOW you don't get into anything anyone can think is wrong about sex, physical punishment, race, religion, ethnicity, and the like.

When I was on my high school track team and we did something wrong at an away meet - like holding our hand over our hearts for the National Anthem instead of the 1960's-correct standing at parade dress - we'd be ordered to run four miles as soon as we got off the bus at our school afterward.  When I coached that same team in the 1980's, If I did a punishment like that it would probably be the last time I coached high school sports.  If you're a school teacher, administrator, club sponsor, sports coach, etc., you have to be aware of what's controversial and not do something stupid.

[jsharr ★]

I got my share of swats from the coaches in high school.  It was understood by the athletes that if we screwed around in class, broke the rules during practice, etc that we could get swats.

I do not think it is is right in this circumstance for a 6 year old girl that scratched a computer, but getting licks was not a bad thing for me.

[Dirtyhip]

I don't have children. Some people may say I don't have the experience to make a decision on this.

My opinion is that this should not be allowed.  This punishment was allowed when I was a kid.  I never got it, because I was a well behaved kid.  I got my share of it at home.  My family had an opinion of that no one should ever put their hands on me.  They thought it was their job to punish me.  My family was overly strict.  

[Zealot]

I would not have allowed the school to punish my children with corporal punishment. And I was very vocal about that. But both of my children were well behaved, honor students. Not that they never did anything wrong. They did. But I didn’t use corporal punishment on them, it wasn’t ever necessary. And there was no way I’d let anyone else. 

I know corporal punishment is a controversial topic in today’s world. I grew up with it. It was used frequently and at times, to an extreme. And it was the norm in my world; a repeating cycle. 

Life is hard.

[Zealot]

12 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I got my share of it at home.  My family had an opinion of that no one should ever put their hands on me.  They thought it was their job to punish me.  My family was overly strict.  

It leaves scars.  😞 Thank you for ending the cycle in your world.