Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Corporal Punishment in Schools

Twenty-one U.S. states still permit the use of corporal punishment in schools. This past year over 200,000 children were corporally beaten as "punishment." Most of the battered children were students of color.

Ed Stoddard writes that "[i]n 13 states in the U.S. South where corporal punishment is the most prevalent, African-American girls are twice as likely to be hit as their white counterparts, according to the 125-page report." His article is based on the Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union study, "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools."