Every time the issue of corporal punishment in Texas public schools comes up, I always have the same response: I can’t believe they still do that.
I’m not a wild-eyed anti-spanking activist if parents choose to use that punishment in the home. But let’s face it — at some point, the adult starts spanking to vent their own frustration rather than to discipline the child. When that dynamic sets in, the grownup has lost control of the situation and the kid knows it.
Regardless of spanking or not spanking at home, who the hell wants a public school employee paddling their kid? Maybe a better question is – in the age of hair-trigger lawsuits, what public school employee would want to paddle someone else’s child? The Texas Conservative Coalition – which killed the parental consent bill — seems to think we live in an era where Principal Crabtree can take a switch to Joey’s hide and his parents will smile warmly at a lesson learned. Maybe it used to take a village to raise a child, but nowadays it only takes Jim “The Texas Hammer” Adler to sue the shit out of a school district.
