Memphis school board votes to quit paddling
The Memphis City Schools Board voted Monday to quit using paddling as a way to discipline students, effective at the start of the 2005-2006 school year.
Board members instead will develop a strategy to train teachers and administrators to discipline students in ways other than paddling.
Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson had been trying to get rid of paddling, and the issue had been a subject of debate for months.
Most public Tennessee schools still permit some form of paddling. Among those that have fully or partially banned it are Nashville, Murfreesboro, Maryville and Knoxville.
But Memphis and Shelby County schools were among only nine of the nation’s 100 largest school districts that still allow paddling, according to a 2004 study by the National Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools. The other seven were in Florida or Texas.
Johnson had suggested alternatives that include a task force to develop behavior standards, peer mediation programs, more counselors in schools and better training for teachers and administrators dealing with chronic disciplinary problems.
School board member Hubon Sandridge has said ending corporal punishment goes against the Bible’s “spare the rod, spoil the child” philosophy.
“I’m not going to change his mind, or change the mind of those who have an opinion on this for religious reasons,” Johnson said before the meeting Monday.
Board member Wanda Halbert said most of her constituents support paddling, and point to a recent food fight at a local school as a reason for firm disciplinary measures that include paddling.
The entire eighth-grade class at Geeter Middle School was suspended after the students refused to clean up the mess they made. The school’s new principal stopped paddling when she started.
“Paddling is one of the last forms of adult authority,” Halbert said. “If we don’t have something in place that will command authority with children, they’re going to think they can just play.”
However, school officials don’t want to be abusive either.
In June, a prominent local high school basketball coach was banned from sports partly because he paddled players for missing shots in games, even though he said it was for disciplinary reasons, according to an investigative report.