IX. Regulating Discipline in Schools

Regulations and Training on School Discipline

Regulations in states that permit corporal punishment do not adequately protect children from abusive disciplinary measures in school or offer necessary support for alternative methods of discipline.

 

Mississippi law does not affirmatively call for corporal punishment in schools; rather, it states that such treatment does not constitute negligence or child abuse.[380] Likewise, there is no Texas law affirmatively granting school districts authority to use corporal punishment; policies regarding discipline and control of students are left to individual districts. Provisions in both Mississippi and Texas law provide for governmental immunity from civil and criminal liability in corporal punishment cases.[381]

Both states recognize that corporal punishment is inappropriate for children in contexts other than the public schools. Texas law prohibits corporal punishment against youth in correctional facilities,[382] in residential treatment centers,[383] and for children in the custody of the Department of Family and Protective Services.[384]Mississippi prohibits corporal punishment by foster parents,[385] and by school bus drivers.[386]Mississippi does have a provision requiring schools to adopt evidence-based practices and positive behavioral interventions in addressing student discipline.[387] This is a positive first step by the state, and should be followed with prohibition of corporal punishment in public schools.

While most states do offer extensive teacher training, not all train their teachers in appropriate, non-violent disciplinary practices.[388] One administrator felt that teachers at his middle school resorted to paddling far too fast, having little or no training on alternative measures of discipline.[389] A superintendent in east Mississippi felt that paddling was something that people just knew how to do, and that teachers "don't need to be trained on how to use a paddle."[390] One parent interviewed by Human Rights Watch had serious concerns about the lack of training: "What are the guidelines? Who is trained? Anybody can just grab my child at school?"[391]

Educators Who Disagree are without Recourse

In some instances, teachers and administrators who object to the use of corporal punishment find themselves without recourse or alternative resources. One teacher in a district that does not permit corporal punishment did not know what to do after he witnessed an incident of paddling on a school bus, and was asked to keep the incident to himself: "One of the coaches explained to me very tersely that word of this incident should not leave the bus. This sort of cowboy justice … preempting my discomfort and my whistle blowing…. [The incident] never resurfaced. I wouldn't know who to take it to. So much, I regret it. I feel guilty."[392]

Teachers who have students who seriously misbehave sometimes find they have exhausted in-class remedies but do not want to send the child to the office as they know the child will be beaten there.[393] One teacher noted that she had a new vice principal halfway through her first year: "He used corporal punishment a lot more than the other teachers. I didn't want to send my kids to him; I wouldn't send my kids to him.[394] Another teacher said he "got the message that 'in this culture, we establish order through corporal punishment, and until you do it, you won't get respect.'"[395]

Some teachers, reluctant to endorse corporal punishment, lacked alternative resources for dealing with particularly difficult students. One teacher described the dilemma: "I only sent kids to the office if they were so out of hand I couldn't handle it. I didn't want to send them to get paddled. I tried to handle it within my own classroom. But I didn't have the option of requesting a different form of punishment."[396] Another teacher described what happened when she exhausted her options:

An interesting thing happens when you're in a classroom. You have high stakes, you have a day teaching, and a history with a student who's a problem in the classroom, who's disruptive. You've tried everything else, and you get to a point-well, you're in a cultural setting where people tell you it's okay, and you've tried everything else. I wouldn't have thought … that I'd send a kid to the office to get corporal punishment. I would have thought I'd tried everything in my power not to do it…. Once you're in the classroom, you realize that doesn't always work.[397]

Parental Choice

In many school districts, parents are given ways to opt out of the use of corporal punishment on their children,[401] but those mechanisms are hard to access and difficult to enforce. In some cases, parents' preferences are ignored and the student is beaten anyway; the parents may then be without redress. Even if the child is not beaten, he or she is still aware of the violence meted out against his or her peers.

Parents say they choose to opt out for fear that corporal punishment will injure their children or because they do not "think anybody should be hitting anybody else's children. There are too many variables. You don't know their intent, their temperament."[402] Parents mistrusted the ability of teachers and administrators to regulate their decisions to resort to corporal punishment or to moderate the levels of violence used. One former Mississippi teacher explained, "There were a couple of parents that didn't want their kids to get corporal punishment; it wasn't that they were against corporal punishment but that they were distrustful of how the school was using it."[403]

Methods of Opting Out of Corporal Punishment

If a school district has a policy for opting out-and not all school districts do-the policy usually falls into one of three categories. First, in some districts, all parents must sign a "yes or no" form, specifying whether or not their child can receive corporal punishment. If the form is not returned, corporal punishment is typically not administered. One superintendent in a small Mississippi district noted that in this situation, the principals usually would speak with the parent before administering corporal punishment.[404]

The second way of expressing preference starts from an assumption that all students will receive corporal punishment. Those who do not want their child to be punished "opt out" by submitting a form to the school or by writing a letter. In the MidlandIndependentSchool District in west Texas, for instance, the policy specifies that "[c]orporal punishment shall not be used in instances where the student's parent or guardian has filed a written statement with the school principal indicating that the parent does not approve of corporal punishment. These written statements should be in the form of a letter, mailed or delivered to the school principal, and submitted annually."[405] In very limited cases, parents may express their preferences orally. A former Mississippi elementary school teacher explained that on the first day of school, the parents could tell the teacher if they did not want their children to be hit: "Not a lot [of parents] would come and articulate that, but some."[406]

Third, in Texas in particular, some districts have policies under which parents are called after the infraction but before corporal punishment is administered. In the TylerIndependentSchool District in Texas, for instance, "a parent or legal guardian of the student must be contacted and approve of the use of corporal punishment prior to each administration."[407] One recent graduate noted that at her high school, "parents could choose-they'd have the principal call your house and decide on swats."[408] We spoke with only one interviewee in Mississippi who reported a scheme in which parents could elect to be called before punishment was administered.[409]

Some school districts do not provide any mention of opt-out methods or parental notification in their official policies or student handbooks. For example, among districts we investigated, Texas school districts Rosebud-Lott, Quinlan, Marshall, and Paris contain no description of opt-out policies.[410] Likewise, the policies of PearlPublicSchool District in Mississippi do not give information on opting out.[411]

Parental Struggles to Opt Out

Some parents feel the opt-out methods are underpublicized and difficult to comply with. One Texas mother told us that she "turned [an opt-out form] in this year, but not last year because I wasn't aware of it and it's kind of hidden."[412] A former teacher in rural Mississippi was not surprised that parents lacked information on how to opt out: "Parents had a page the student would take home. If the student didn't bring it back, then they didn't opt out. I don't know if the students ever showed their parents or not."[413] A Texas parent whose middle school son had been beaten felt the burden on parents was unnecessarily high: "Only if you read the handbook do you find out that the school administers corporal punishment, and then you have to re-write a letter each year and say that you are opposed to it."[414] A former administrator in Meridian, Mississippi, reported to Human Rights Watch that parents felt coerced into signing forms authorizing paddling because, if they did not, their children were more likely to be threatened with expulsion should disciplinary problems emerge.[415]

In addition, parents of special education students have had to fight repeatedly to opt out of corporal punishment for their children. Each special education student has a yearly Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that is devised by the parents, teachers, and administrators; this IEP includes a discipline plan. Parents in Mississippi described problems having corporal punishment expressly prohibited in the IEP. Beverly Shields, a northeast Mississippi mother of an autistic boy who is now 16, stated that she had to "forcibly have this [a ban on corporal punishment] put in his IEP, because corporal punishment to an autistic person is just not acceptable in any fashion. He wouldn't know why they were doing it."[416] Her older boys had been paddled in a different Mississippi school district in violation of her opt-out forms:

I knew from my experiences that the teachers weren't going to look at the card [indicating opt-out]. The principal was saying we won't spank him [my autistic son]. But I needed something in a permanent fashion, that no corporal punishment will be administered and that you will use positive reinforcement. The school tries to make you give up.[417]

She noted that another advantage of fighting to get a ban on corporal punishment placed in the IEP is that, unlike with the opt-out forms in her district, the ban does not have to be renewed every year.[418]

Johnny McPhail, the father of the autistic girl in north Mississippi, also had difficulties securing appropriate discipline for his daughter. At an IEP meeting during his daughter's second-grade year, the school sought permission to paddle her. "They wanted to paddle her because she was having tantrums in class. They were from the 'old school,' [meaning] 'if you cry, they'll whip your butt.'"[419] McPhail felt strongly that the school board, the officials in charge of writing the school discipline policy in his district, knew nothing about behavioral issues for students with disabilities.[420]

Parental Preferences against Corporal Punishment Ignored

Several parents reported to Human Rights Watch that their expressed preferences were ignored, and that their children were paddled in violation of written or verbal opt outs. For instance, Janet Y., a mother in rural Mississippi, filed opt-out forms every year subsequent to the sixth grade, when her daughter was paddled and bruised. Janet renewed the no-paddle request in twelfth grade, but her daughter was subsequently paddled, by the same perpetrator, for "disrespect."[421] The girl was once again seriously bruised, and was taken to receive medical care.[422]

A seventh-grade boy in rural west Texas was paddled even though his mother had followed school procedure by submitting a letter stating her opposition to paddling at the beginning of the school year. She commented, "I made it a point to do this each year, and they didn't even check the files. They automatically smacked him without checking the files."[423] A 10-year-old boy with diagnosed ADHD in rural east Texas received two blows for "horse-playing" in September 2007. His mother maintains that she had two in-person conversations with his principal in the weeks prior to her son's paddling, expressing her opposition to corporal punishment.[424]

One former elementary school teacher in rural Mississippi noted that students were discouraged from enforcing their parents' preferences:

Even if a student is opted out, students don't have a voice … they're told their job is to listen and be obedient…. Students are powerless, unfortunately.[425]

One high school girl in Mississippi tried to assert her right not to be paddled when her principal was swinging his paddle to threaten her: "I told him that my mom opted out, and he said I was trying to be smart-ass. He said, 'I see you standing on your soapbox this morning, bitch.'"[426]

Even students whose parents' no-paddle preferences were honored find themselves in a coercive environment. A sixth-grade boy on the opt-out list "came home crying … basically scared to death" after his principal threatened the school with paddling during an assembly.[427] A mother of a nine-year-old and a 12-year-old noted that "I always say 'no' on the forms … but it's always there in the school, and even in the classrooms."[428]

It is a recognized principle of human rights that children, by reason of their physical and mental immaturity, are exceptionally vulnerable and therefore in need of special safeguards and legal protections.[429] Likewise, parents have a duty to facilitate their children's exercise of their fundamental rights.[430] The parents discussed above were explicitly trying to ensure their children's rights were respected. When schools paddle a student in violation of parental preferences, they not only impinge on the child's fundamental rights, they directly contradict parents' attempts to protect the best interest of their own children to be free from humiliating and degrading treatment.