15 states have laws that allow corporal punishment in schools.
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that → have → schools
Here's where, and why
One day, about eight years ago, when Tessa Davis' son was in kindergarten, she got a call from his school outside Little Rock, Ark.
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she → get → Rock
She said the school told her he had grabbed a girl's jacket in the cafeteria and twisted it – they thought he was trying to choke her.
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he → say → her
Given his past misbehavior, Davis said, the school gave her two options: He could either be suspended for three days or a school administrator could paddle him.
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administrator → give → him
NPR is only identifying her son by his first initial, C, because this story details his behavioral struggles and how he's been disciplined in school.
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he → identify → school
Davis said she couldn't afford to miss three days of work to stay home with C.
"
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she → say → C.
I was kind of at, just like my breaking point," Davis recalled.
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Davis → recall → point
"I told my husband that he could decide what we would do.
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we → tell → what
And he was like, 'Well, I was paddled, so give him the paddling.'
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I → paddle → paddling
So that's what we chose.
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we → choose → what
And I just remember feeling like instant regret."
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I → remember → regret
After the paddling, she said C was scared to go back to school.
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C → say → school
"I just think he always struggled going to school then after that, for sure," his mom said.
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mom → think → that
"I mean he struggled before, but afterwards I felt like, especially in that building, he was always more tense, more aware and afraid. …
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he → mean → building
One time he told me that he didn't want to go to school there anymore because he was afraid that he was gonna get hurt."
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he → tell → school
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry defines corporal punishment as "anything done to cause pain or discomfort" in response to a child's behavior.
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Academy → define → behavior
In schools, that often means a paddling.
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that → mean → paddling
There is broad consensus among psychologists that corporal punishment can be harmful to children, but the U.S. has no federal laws banning it in public schools.
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U.S. → be → schools
Instead, it's up to states and local districts to decide if it can be used, and many states and local districts still require parents to consent.
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states → decide → parents
And while corporal punishment is much less common today than in the past – when it was used for everyday discipline as well as to punish students for speaking languages other than English and, in federal Indian boarding schools, to force Native children to assimilate – it still happens.
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it → use → children
The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection, or CRDC, shows almost 32,000 reported instances of corporal punishment being used on K-12 students in the 2021-'22 school year.
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data → show → year
That's about 1 reported incident per 2,000 students.
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That → report → students
The public schools in C's home state, Arkansas, have some of the highest rates of corporal punishment in the country, second only to Mississippi.
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schools → have → Mississippi
An NPR analysis found that 15 states allow schools to employ corporal punishment, though the practice may be banned at the local level.
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practice → find → level
Thirty states plus Washington, D.C., have passed laws that explicitly ban corporal punishment in all public schools.
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that → pass → schools
And the remaining states don't explicitly ban the practice – some have other laws that have been interpreted as bans, and others have no laws at all.
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others → remain → laws
Almost all of the country's reported instances of public school corporal punishment happened in eight states – primarily in the South – according to federal data.
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all → report → data
Morgan Craven advocates for ending corporal punishment nationally in public schools.
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Craven → advocate → schools
She is a policy expert with the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), a group that promotes equal educational opportunities, primarily in the South.
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that → promote → South
She said that in some communities in the South, spanking or other types of corporal punishment can be rooted in faith-based beliefs or other types of community norms.
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spanking → say → norms
"There is this belief that corporal punishment … is not harmful at all, but is actually part of the expectation that some communities have for raising children," Craven said.
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Craven → be → children
Because of the cultural connections in these areas, she said, "talking about ending corporal punishment in schools feels like some indictment of the way that they were raised or what was passed down in their own families."
But not everyone accepts those norms.
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everyone → say → norms
"There are also many communities in the South," she said, "who are pushing back against physical violence as a way to discipline children and really want to challenge those understandings.
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who → be → understandings
"The spankings never made the behavior stop"
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behavior → make → ?
Tessa Davis said she and her husband both grew up in households that used corporal punishment, so choosing it for their own family felt natural.
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choosing → say → family
"That's how I was raised, so that's what I was trying and it definitely was not working. …
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it → raise → what
The spankings never made the behavior stop, ever," she said.
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she → make → ?
"In fact, it made it worse."
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it → make → fact
Davis and her husband adopted C when he was a toddler, and she said he always had a lot of trouble separating from her.
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he → adopt → her
"Crying, screaming, yelling, melting down, following me out the door, running out the doors, those kinds of things," she explained.
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she → melt → things
…and 88 more, not listed.
