IV. Corporal Punishment in US Public Schools

Corporal punishment is routinely used against students with and without disabilities in US public schools. Corporal punishment most often takes the form of paddling: a wooden board swung repeatedly against the child's buttocks, causing immediate pain and sometimes lasting injury. According to the most recent data available from the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 223,190 students nationwide were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year, including at least 41,972 students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are paddled at disproportionately high rates, given their percentage of the student population.

In addition to paddling, other forms of violent discipline are often used against students with disabilities. Corporal punishment is defined under human rights law as "any punishment in which physical force is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort";[25] there is no comprehensive definition of corporal punishment under US state or federal law. The ACLU and Human Rights Watch documented cases of corporal punishment including hitting children with a belt, a ruler, a set of rulers taped together, or a toy hammer; pinching, slapping, or striking very young children in particular; grabbing children around the arm, the neck, or elsewhere with enough force to bruise; throwing children to the floor; slamming a child into a wall; dragging children across floors; and bruising or otherwise injuring children in the course of restraint.[26] Corporal punishment is prohibited under international law and in many US settings, including most juvenile correction facilities,[27] yet it continues in public schools.

As discussed later in this report, educators may use force under limited circumstances to ensure a safe environment for their students, including through physical restraint.  Yet this must be strictly limited: international human rights standards state that the use of force against students is only permissible in exceptional circumstances, and even then only to a minimal degree.[28] Educators must be trained to respond to dangerous behavior, "both to minimize the necessity to use restraint and to ensure that any methods used are safe and proportionate to the situation and do not involve the deliberate infliction of pain."[29]  Any force with intent to punish is prohibited,[30] meaning that the vast majority of the violent techniques used in US public schools amount to corporal punishment and violate human rights law.

Paddling

Paddling (also commonly called "swats," "pops," or "licks") usually means hitting a student three or more times on the buttocks and upper thighs with a wooden paddle.[31] Charles B., the father of an 11-year-old Texas boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, described a paddling his son received in early 2009:

The first swat knocked [my son] down ... when he fell, the principal said he had five seconds to get back up, or he'd start all over again ... it probably took him a minute and a half to get up again. They gave him two more swats. Then the principal had to go to the nurse's office to get the asthma inhaler, [my son] couldn't breathe ... When he came home from school, my wife found the marks on him. When I came home at 8 [p.m.], we went to the sheriff's office. He had severe bruising on his buttocks and on his lower back. His butt was just covered.[32]

The paddle used to hit children is typically around 15 inches long, between two and four inches wide, and one-half inch thick, with a six-inch handle at one end. One former teacher in Texas told the ACLU and Human Rights Watch that he found shaved down baseball bats that were being used as paddles, similar to those depicted below.[33]

Paddles made from baseball bats (keys indicate size) and standard paddle. © 2008 Alice Farmer/Human Rights Watch.

 Students are typically beaten by administrators (principals, vice principals, or assistant principals) or teachers.[34] The majority of paddlers in incidents described by our interviewees were male. One Mississippi teacher and mother noted that the "swats are given by grown men; some of them [are] good swingers."[35] Jacquelyn K., a Mississippi grandmother, commented, "[My grandson, who has autism], was in first grade ... This AP [assistant principal], a big, 300 pound man, picked up an inch-thick paddle and paddled him. My child just lost it."[36] According to our interviews, students with disabilities were also struck by teacher's aides or other para-professionals.[37]

When a student is paddled, she is typically told to stand with her hands on a desk or a chair, so that the student is bent over.[38] These stances are submissive, placing the student in a position with no opportunity for self defense, even though he is being subjected to violent blows. Students take steps to mitigate the blows, well aware of the pain they may face.One Texas boy, who has ADHD and dyslexia, "wore extra clothing because he had heard the coach hit hard."[39]

Other Physical Force Used Against Students

Physical force used to punish is never acceptable, yet according to our interviews, a wide variety of violent tactics were used to discipline students with disabilities. Under human rights law, the minimum use of force for the shortest necessary period of time may be used where there is a need to protect a child or others.[40] Yet the instances of physical force documented by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch were used to punish, not protect, the child, and go far beyond permissible levels of force.

Students Hit with Other Objects

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch received reports of students being struck with objects other than a paddle. Theresa E., a Georgia grandmother and primary caretaker of a girl with autism, learned that her five-year-old granddaughter had been hit with a toy hammer, which the teacher allegedly used to "tap [kindergarteners] on the forehead" but which did far more damage to her granddaughter: "Jessie has a tactile sensory disorder. The school was aware she had this problem ... I said to her, what feels like a tap to you feels like something entirely different to this girl."[41]

We heard multiple reports of students being hit by teachers with rulers, especially among younger children. A Mississippi middle school boy was hit in fifth grade with a set of rulers taped together: "I was talking, it was a group of students and she [the teacher] told us to come up to her desk and she popped us on our palms ... this was with four rulers taped together."[42]

Theresa E. knows that her granddaughter was hit with another object, but her granddaughter, who at the time was non-verbal (unable to communicate as a symptom of her disability),[43]could not tell her grandmother what that object was:

I was picking her up under her armpits, that's when she started crying. You could see the bruising. Her whole arm was swollen by the time she got to the emergency room. Her right arm. The doctor said it looked like she'd been hit by a baseball bat or had been in a motorcycle accident. That's the only time he'd seen injuries like that ... To this day, I have no idea what they hit her with ... The human hand doesn't have that kind of strength.[44]

Students Spanked, Pinched, Grabbed and Bruised, or Beaten

Many students in families we interviewed were subjected to violence in school without the use of an implement. This can constitute corporal punishment; the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child lists examples of corporal punishment as including "hitting ('smacking,' 'slapping,' 'spanking') children, with the hand[.]"[45]

Punishments reported to us include spanking, pinching, grabbing and bruising, and beating. Tom R.'s son, a boy with OCD, Tourette Syndrome, and bipolar disorder, was in first grade when he was "spanked on his behind. With an open hand. The teacher hit him. The times he told us about it-it happened at least five or six times ... within a three month period of time that he was there in first grade."[46]

One mother, Cynthia C., reports that her son, who has significant congenital brain abnormalities and developmental delays, came home from school with "pinch marks on him ... It kept going on, it started in kindergarten. The marks were on his arms, usually on the top by the bicep, sometimes by the wrist ... They would stay on his body, it was bruising."[47] Cynthia reports that when she asked her son's teacher about these marks, the teacher "would say that he had been screaming and kicking, so he needed to be punished."[48] In a separate incident when he was six, Cynthia's son was bruised in school; her son is non-verbal and unable to tell her what happened: "I'm sure they hit him. There was a handprint, a handprint on his back during the 2006-2007 school year. On the middle of his back ... It was clearly an adult handprint, not a child's handprint."[49]

Some students were injured when they were grabbed or beaten by their caretakers. Anna M.'s son, who has an autistic spectrum disorder, was seven years old when he was beaten, scratched, and bruised in school, sustaining injuries to his arms, torso, and lip.[50] Theresa E., the grandmother of a girl on the autism spectrum[51] describes two incidents that happened in kindergarten:

Third week of school, she came home with bruises on her arm. It was a handprint. You could see the finger marks, extended on her arm, between the elbow and the wrist ... either the teacher grabbed her hard, or hit her with excessive force.[52]

In the second incident, the five-year-old girl sustained contusions on her neck:

She had bruises, a couple inches, from side-to-side, on the front portion of her neck. To be honest with you, it looked like a belt. It was maybe two-to-three inches from side to side. I thought, maybe she got tangled in a swing. Jessie said, "no mommy." She said "the teacher got mad. I couldn't breathe."[53]

Dragging, Throwing, or Pulling Children

Many families we interviewed reported that physical force was used in order to drag or pull children to another part of the school. Some children were thrown to the floor or into a wall by teachers or teachers' aides. When used to discipline, these incidents also constitute corporal punishment, which as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child observes, can involve "kicking, shaking, or throwing children."[54]

Brian, Karen W.'s son with autism, was dragged from under his desk by an aide when he was 10 years old:

He was under the desk, crying ... He finally bolted up from under his desk and grabbed the man [the aide]'s hand. He [my son] wasn't a threat to him. But in their mind, they saw that as physical aggression toward a staff. [Another staff member] helped [the aide] drag out Brian ... he came home with bruises. Bruises to the back of his neck from being held down. This is the day when we started saying, "you've got to make accommodations, you cannot do this to him."[55]

Theresa E. had gone to pick up her granddaughter at kindergarten, when she saw another student in her daughter's small special education class thrown across the room: "Amanda, a non-verbal child, started rocking and spinning at the same time. The TA [teacher's aide] walked over and grabbed her, and threw her into the wall. She gave her no warning."[56] Anna M.'s son, who has a developmental disorder, was seven years old when he was thrown across his Florida classroom:

An ESC [Exceptional Students Center] coordinator ... says she "gently placed him" on his "safe space" mat, but my son had a contusion on his head. He says they threw him into a stack of chairs. They didn't call me. They just sent him out like the end of a regular day. He had red marks across his face when he came to the car. I asked him what was going on. He wouldn't say, he was quiet. I gave him time to calm down. But another parent called me at 6 [p.m.], and said, is he OK? So I asked him again, and he started screaming. I checked his head, and he had a big bump on his temple, under his hairline. So I took him to the emergency room, they noted contusions....[57]

Rose C.'s son, who has autism and cognitive delays, was 15 when he was dragged across campus and thrown onto a tile floor, and on another day thrown into a stack of chairs. Rose obtained videotape of the first incident and described it as follows:

[My son] is sitting with a female student ... My son gets mad, he screams ... My son starts running away. Then a male staff member-we don't know who he is-picks him up and throws him into the tile floor, face first. They're all on him now, on the tile floor in the cafeteria. Eventually they ... pick up my son by his limbs ... They took him to room 119, it's a meeting room ... My son threw a pencil across the room and knocked over the table. The male staff member picked him up, and put him in a chokehold. Other staff members come running. Three or four of them tackle him, and he's thrown to the floor again.[58]

Children Bruised or Injured During Restraint

Schools throughout the United States use restraints[59] in response to students with disabilities, and allegations of abusive restraints have been raised across the nation.[60] The ACLU and Human Rights Watch documented numerous cases in which students were bruised or more seriously injured in the course of restraints or holds.

Educators may use force under limited circumstances to ensure a safe environment for their students. Under international law, in "exceptional circumstances ... dangerous behavior [may] justif[y] the use of reasonable restraint," but that force must be the minimum amount necessary for the shortest period of time, and must never be used to punish.[61] Educators must be trained to respond to dangerous behavior, "both to minimize the necessity to use restraint and to ensure that any methods used are safe and proportionate to the situation and do not involve the deliberate infliction of pain."[62]

Face-Down or Prone Restraint

Several families we interviewed reported that their children were subjected to prone restraint, in which a child is pinned face-down to the floor, often with his hands pulled behind his back. Prone restraint is "one of the most lethal school practices":[63] sudden fatal cardiac arrhythmia or respiratory arrest can occur through prone restraint.[64] Non-lethal consequences of prone restraint can include cerebral and cerebellar oxygen deprivation, lacerations, abrasions, injury to muscles, contusions or bruising, blunt trauma to the head, neck injury, dislocation of shoulder and other joints, hyperextension of the arms, and decrease in circulation to the extremities.[65] The National Disability Rights Network has documented three cases in which students died following prone restraint.[66]

Tom R.'s son weighed just 40 pounds when he was pinned to the floor, face-down, by his assistant principal: "[he] had huge bruises across his chest ... on his upper ribs, across both his arms, down both of his legs."[67] Rose C. described her son's face-down restraint:

All different teachers come in, they hold him down. One of the girls [women teachers], she's a heavy girl, she's on his back. He has a sore neck, he can't breathe. He's about 15, he's the skinniest boy you've ever seen. He's 5'7", about 125 pounds ... When he was released, the first thing my son did is go for his neck [because it was hurt].[68]

Karen W.'s son, who has autism, was only able to describe prone restraint years later: "Later, now, he's been able to tell me about face down restraints. He showed me on the floor. One person on his back, one person on his feet. If he would raise his head, they'd force it back down. I think they were trying to break his spirit."[69]

Face-down restraint is extremely dangerous and never appropriate.[70] It does not meet international standards requiring the minimum use of force for the shortest period of time, and it should be absolutely prohibited in schools.

Other Restraint

Many families we interviewed described other forms of restraint used against their children, including "holds" or vertical restraints, which can amount to corporal punishment when used with intent to discipline and cause pain and discomfort. Families reported that their students were bruised or even more severely injured in the course of restraints. Again, international standards mandate that force can only be used to protect a child or others, and then the force used must be to the minimum degree possible for the shortest period of time. The restraints reported to us far exceed human rights standards.

May R.'s daughter, who has bipolar and anxiety disorders, was seven when "she was placed in a hold for 30-45 minutes [causing bruising from shoulder to wrist, and broken blood vessels under her armpits]. The teacher told me a new technique was used on her to place her in a hold that would intentionally cause discomfort in order to deter future misbehavior."[71]The use of force with the intent to cause discomfort amounts to corporal punishment, not permissible restraint.

Cynthia C.'s son developed chest pains following repeated "basket" holds. The teacher repeatedly approached her son, English, from behind and picked him up as if he were in a basket. Cynthia reported that "she [the teacher] would say that he had been screaming and kicking, so he needed to be punished."[72] English's cardiologist directed that the basket holds be discontinued, as his "heart muscle is at the upper limit of normal."[73]