Dive Brief:
- There are 19 states that still allow corporeal punishment in schools, with the last of the 31 states to abolish the practice being New Mexico in 2011.
- While every state has different laws, the Children’s Defense Fund looked at data from the 2009-10 school year and found that, on average, 838 children were hit each day in public school.
- According to The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss, it is most common in Texas and least prevalent in Wyoming.
Dive Insight:
The states that still allow corporal punishment: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
Many states require parent consent, but of course each state or district law is different. For example, in a Tennessee district, the rule states that corporal punishment may occur as long as “bodily injury” doesn't happen. This clause, however, is not stated in all other laws. Florida has a particularly opaque law, simply stating: "'Corporal punishment' means the moderate use of physical force or physical contact by a teacher or principal as may be necessary to maintain discipline or to enforce school rule. However, the term 'corporal punishment' does not include the use of such reasonable force by a teacher or principal as may be necessary for self-protection or to protect other students from disruptive students."