Georgia Charter School to bring back corporal punishment

A State of Georgia charter school has reinstated spanking children with a wooden paddle as a form of punishment.

A local CBS affiliate reported, that the Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics in Hephzibah sent home a letter to parents this week asking for permission to paddle their children after their third behavioral infraction. The kindergarten-through-ninth-grade Georgia charter school said they have gotten just over a hundred “consent to paddle” forms back. A third of the forms giving consent from parents to paddle their children.

Jody Boulineau, the superintendent at the Georgia charter school, told the local station, “In this school, we take discipline very seriously,”

“There was a time where corporal punishment was kind of the norm in school and you didn’t have the problems that you have,” Boulineau continued.

“It’s just one more tool that we have in our toolbox that we can use” said Boulineau.

“There’s no obligation, it’s not required. A parent can either give consent for us to use that as a disciplinary measure or they can deny consent,” he added. Students who are not authorised to be paddled will instead face a suspension of up to five days.

“I’ve heard ‘great, it’s about time, ‘we’re so glad that this is happening again, they should’ve never taken it out of schools,’” Boulineau said of the reactions he has received from parents about the controversial policy to be implemented in the Georgia charter school. “All the way to ‘oh my goodness I can’t believe you are doing that.’”

Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma are among twenty states that allow corporal punishment – including paddling – in schools. The rules in each state differ as to what type of paddle may be used, how hard administrators are allowed to spank the child and whether “bodily injury” to the student is permissible.

What are your thoughts on corporal punishment in schools? Let us know in the comments below.

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