DUers, Did Your School Use Corporal Punishment?

[ProudLib72]

That is the new RW meme for 'splainin' the Florida shooting: not enough God or spankings in school. So I wonder how many actually received or might have received a paddling from the principal when they were in school.

I never got a spanking, but I was in the principal's office a lot. He showed me his paddles and discussed having to use them the "next time". I always heard of kids in the older grades getting a paddling, but never believed the rumors. Mind you, this was in Texas in the late 70s, which should have been spanking central if we are to believe the RW meme. But before I call bullshit to the meme entirely, I would like to get some backup, maybe figure out if there really was widespread use of corporal punishment at some time in the past.

[samnsara]

1. in the 50s...yeah.. the teachers had paddles with holes in them to make it hurt more..

..I never saw any of them use them. But they would.

[ProudLib72]

5. Did you actually know someone who was spanked?

Was there ever reliable confirmation?

[pnwmom]

21. Yes. This person is someone I am very close to. He was 6 years old.

He got paddled because when he was walking through the crosswalk, one of his feet fell outside of the crosswalk.

I kid you not. He reports this matter-of-factly, and his mother remembers too. (She was outraged -- but there was nothing she could do. It was legal.)

[ProudLib72]

54. There is no reason to beat a six year old!

And for having a foot outside a crosswalk? That is just evil. It sounds like these people were sadistic, just looking for any excuse to be able to beat a child!

[pnwmom]

73. It was as much a part of the culture as hunting and fishing.

But I just checked and it would no longer be legal in that state. Still, it would be in 19 other states.

That Children's Defense fund report in 2014 (I mentioned it below) said it was sometimes reserved for major offenses but sometimes allowed for trivial ones, like being tardy.

[retread]

75. Yes. Many times. It was either the paddle with holes and painted red or weeks of after school

detention. Always made it a point to smile when they were done. Usually fell to assistant principal to administer.

[jberryhill]

2. Yeah, but they called it lunch

70’s here. There were paddles. The extent or even incidence of their actual use was in doubt.

[BigmanPigman]

3. That's corporal punishment and against the law.

One teacher at the school I taught at had a school paddle with 6 holes cut out of it for better velocity. The words "Board of Education" were written on it as a joke and the principal made him put it away when the school board came for a site visit.

[pnwmom]

6. No, it's still legal in 19 states, and a Supreme Court decision upheld it --

even though the 9 year old ended up with a broken arm. I'll never forget that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/18/19-states-still-allow-corporal-punishment-in-school/?utm_term=.8e9ba9e530d2

[BigmanPigman]

7. I thought they only did that in private and religious schools...ouch!

[Ms. Toad]

10. Actually, it is not against the law in many states.

These states permitted corporal punishment (as oF 2014):

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

[Major Nikon]

53. It's worth noting most of those states are basically theocracies

Corporal punishment is counterproductive and just plain stupid. The biggest reason it still survives is because the bible still trumps reason in many areas.

[pnwmom]

74. It used to be legal in most states. I remember when we moved to a state which was

one of the rare exceptions. I was happy to hear about that. I'd had enough of watching other kids get hit.

And I noticed right away that the kids in the new state were just as well behaved as the kids who were being paddled.

[ProudLib72]

13. Yeah, the paddle with holes to make it go faster and hit harder!

Kids believe that stuff so readily. I know I did. "Oh no! There's the paddle with holes in it. Lucky for me it's only for the older kids!"

[smirkymonkey]

4. Never. No god, no corporal punishment.

These days, I am beginning to feel that my school days were idyllic compared to what children have to endure today.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Yup,to the

Principal's Office. Chair had my name on it or at least it seemed that way. Or you had to sit in the Hallway.

And of course,he would call the House and remind whom ever answered,you Kid did this or that. That damn broken Shingle did its best to leave a mark.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. No. The delight and relish some people display when talking about hitting children is disturbing.

[snowybirdie]

11. Yes

Got slapped in the face by my fifth grade nun for getting chocolate milk splashed on the newly cleaned altar boys uniforms. She had hung them right over where we were supposed to pick up our milk snack. I was ten and after 60+ years it stands out in memory. And I was an honor roll student!

[lunasun]

112. Nuns were horrible . Priests at boys HS were worse punch you in the face... although I saw some

really violent nun moves . A kids finger broken the creepiest just pushed it back on his hand on the
desk til it cracked brutal black veiled monsters

[njhoneybadger]

12. I had a first grade teacher who would get behind a child put her hands on their shoulders and

Then shake the living shit out of them. She would also put children in a corner on a stool with a dunce hat . That was about 1963

[ProudLib72]

20. Holy crap!

I thought the dunce hat was only in the cartoons! That's really evil.

[pnwmom]

27. I had a teacher who shook a boy. A Mrs. Stanley. I still remember how the boy's cheeks

would shake. I think it happened more than once, with this same boy.

I don't remember what he did that prompted her outrage. But I do remember that I always considered him the smartest boy in the class.

[RobinA]

109. My First Grade Teacher

was a shaker as well. She also hit my friend over the head with a book. My friend used to zone out. One time Mrs Garrigan went racing back the aisle, picked a book up off my friend’s desk and whacked her over the head. Witch.

[Siwsan]

14. The parochial school I went to certainly did, and it could be brutal

One of the teachers would actually cane students. Another had a habit of twisting his college ring around and thumping students on the head.

[pnwmom]

33. Most public schools used to allow it decades ago. Now 19 still do.

Of course, in a Catholic school the level of hypocrisy (in the midst of all the talk about love) would be that much greater.

This was one of the reasons my parents sent us to public school. The funny thing is, it was also a practice in the public school. My parents must not have noticed the paddle on the wall. Years later I told my mother about it happening in front of the class (to other kids, but I was traumatized) and she was shocked.

Oh yeah -- and one of the 4th or 5th grade teachers, and one of the gym teachers, liked to do "birthday spankings." So I decided to be sick on my birthday. That was the right choice for me.

[Thomas Hurt]

15. My 5th grade teacher gave swats for bad grades....

C got you one swat, D two, F three.

My elementary school principal had a paddle too. I was on the receiving end of that once for a fight I got into...

none after elementary school though.

late 60s early 70s.

[treestar]

16. Late 60s elementary school

One teacher had this trick where he made the kid close their eyes and they jumped even though the teacher hit a pile of books instead. They still could get away with something like that back then. I don't think they actually hit kids in school at that point. At home, we got hit with a belt. Nothing seen as wrong back then.

[MountCleaners]

17. Not officially, but

...during my junior year, I was at a rehearsal for an honors night ceremony. The student behind me told a joke, and I laughed, and the principal came up to me and squeezed my neck as hard as a fifty-year-old woman could. She was also a Dominican nun. It was so disturbing. She spoke to me through gritted teeth. Really angry about me laughing at a trivial event. That a religious person and principal would do this made me really disillusioned with the Catholic church. It was traumatizing and intimidating.

So corporal punishment, while evil, would certainly backfire - students would rebel. Republicans are so dumb.

[ProudLib72]

32. That's a point I was thinking of: it backfires

Threat of corporal punishment intimidates. Real corporal punishment causes rebellion, especially if everyone else is there to witness it.

[jalan48]

18. We had it in grade school. I got the paddle for throwing a snowball at another kid.

[moriah]

19. Born in 80. Nope. Nt

[Igel]

22. No.

But I'll point out that the school I teach at is wealthier and higher achieving than mine.

And that we have mandatory "community building" practices and sessions to try to get the study body up to what my pitiful high school thought bare-bones minimum for behavioral and community standards.

My friend's school did. Knuckle rapping in high school. The occasional spanking in elementary school. Mine had "stand in the corner", which strikes nobody as better than "sit in the hall."

[MFM008]

23. 60s

Yes.

[eissa]

24. Started elementary in the 70s in California

Paddle was unheard of. I can’t imagine what would have happened to any teacher that would strike a child.

[Aristus]

25. A Department of Defense elementary school in the 1970's.

Yep.

The principal was Mr. Palege (not entirely sure about the spelling, but it was pronounced 'Puh-lezh'.) Everyone was terrified of him. He looked just like one of those scowling, chin-bearded old men in a 19th Century photograph. He routinely spanked students. Seeing him lead a crying student from his office back to the classroom was a near-daily occurence.

The 'no corporal punishment in the schools these days is why gun-massacres happen' types don't seem interested in explaining why so many gun massacres are committed by men in their 40's, 50's, and 60's, who went to school back when there was spaing in the schools.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. Nope. Never saw a student hit by any teacher. Never heard tell of it either.

[OnDoutside]

28. Yep, i was in a Christian Brothers school and the weapon of choice was the leather, which

was two pieces of leather sewn together with coins in the middle.

“No Instrument of punishment is to be used in the schools except a strap of leather, that is not to exceed 13 inches in length, 1.25 inches in width, and 0.25 inch in thickness. In junior schools the strap is to be of smaller dimensions: and in each case the strap is to be supplied by the agent for the sale of our books, Dublin.”

An implement specifically manufactured to inflict severe pain on adolescent boys.
Coins were routinely sewn into the interior laminate to add weight.

[ProudLib72]

46. Was this in the US or Ireland?

Those references are for Ireland and Northern Ireland.

[OnDoutside]

51. Ireland. Actually it was a lay teacher who gave my class the most in a 45 minute period

136 leathers between 30 of us. I was lucky to only get two. We had some nutter Brothers though, one of whom was seriously sadistic, most of the others had alcohol problems.

[ProudLib72]

58. Bunch of little gurriers you lot were I bet!

Putting coins between the straps, though. That's just sick. I mean, I hate to say it but I can understand the purpose of a regular strap. That seems like it was actually meant to keep damage to a minimum. But some brilliant man thought to put the coins in and turn it into a black jack, thus circumventing the rules and creating a terrible weapon.

[OnDoutside]

61. We were good boys, honest ! ;) Actually that teacher is still teaching in the school 36 years later.

All it did was mask the inept teachers, and the sadistic ones. Once the fear factor had gone, it definitely changed the teacher-pupil relationship, though it tended to escalate smaller issues, far more quickly, as teachers would then push transgressions up to the Head Teacher.

[sakabatou]

29. Nope.

[GrapesOfWrath]

30. Yes

Sorry to say... growing up in Houston Texas...when I was in elementary school during the 1960s. Our entire class heard the paddling take place in the hall. Afterwards the boy, named Mark, I’ll never forget, came back in the room with red faced and crying.

[Ohiogal]

87. Yes that was a favorite trick to intimidate

the rest of the class ... Paddle the kid right outside the classroom door so everyone could hear it. They did that at my elementary school, too.

[targetpractice]

31. Yes...

... in North Carlolina in the early 70's... One 3rd grade English teacher was notorious for having a long paddle with three holes drilled into it... She used it on others. All teachers had them hanging behind their desk, and would wave them around sometimes when the class was unruly. I was a teachers' pet, and always assigned to "take names" on the chalkboard whenever the teacher left the room. I haven't thought about this for years... I felt so powerful at the time, but now I think it's barbaric.

I only got slapped on the wrist by my third grade math teacher along with every one else in the class... I don't remember the reason we all got in trouble, but it turned me off math permanently.

I moved to Illinois for 6th grade... My homeroom teacher had a temper and would throw desks at students (no paddling allowed)... Then moved to New Jersey for high school which was pretty civilized... Only detentions... Although they had a smoking area for students.

Wow... Good question... Things have really changed. I experienced bomb threat drills and "race riot" drills in NC... We were not allowed on buses with sharpened pencils.

[ProudLib72]

41. I remember names on the board!

Talk about causing division in the classroom.

It's interesting about the math teacher. The use of corporal punishment has long lasting deleterious effects, and that "teacher" managed to accomplish the exact opposite of what she was there to do.

[Ohiogal]

85. I had an English teacher in 7th grade

who threw desks, too. I thought this was something that only happened in my school!

Also in 7th grade, our band teacher threw music stands, and screamed till he was red in the face. How humiliating it was when you were his target.

I remember paddling, but I never got one since I was always a good little girl who did what I was told. ... My school years were early 60s and early 70s.

My first grade teacher was a real prissy type and she read to us out of the Bible every morning, and this was in public school and we had a few Jewish kids in my class. This Bible lady wasn't beyond shaking kids that were bad, however!

[loyalsister]

34. Not sure if it was allowed

But it happened. My sadistic 1st grade teacher told a kid to stand in front of the class and bend over and she swatted him with a ping pong paddle. I got a quick swat once. So, I'm sure it happened to other kids.

[surrealAmerican]

35. sort of

The vice principal had a paddle, but would only use it with written consent from a parent. I think rumor had it it was used a couple of times.

New York, mid 70's

[crazycatlady]

36. Class of 1998-- definitely not

[nolabear]

37. I was spanked once. In the first grade.

I remember the horror and humiliation. I had borrowed (I swear I didn't steal it) a crayon from another kid because she had the good ones-Crayolas-and I had some waxy cheap things.

The principal was a woman and she bent me over her knee. We had to wear skirts so I was as exposed as I could be without my bottom being bare. I can't imagine what they were thinking except that that's what you did. It's insane.

But yes, it was a thing all the way through my earlier school years. I actually don't recall how it was in high school.

[TygrBright]

38. No, they focused on humiliation and shame. Paddling might have been over quicker. n/t

[Turbineguy]

39. Yes.

Early 1960's. The third grade guy did it. In front of the class. It was kind of satisfying to see 4th, 5th and 6th graders who were assholes get their comeuppance, but there was also something wrong with it and I had a bad feeling about it. Of course, I might be next.

Finally, somebody in authority figured out that this guy was a fucking sadist who liked hurting children.

And one day the son of a bitch was gone. Never to return. He was replaced by a lovely young woman who worked hard and was nice. She was especially kind to me. But she was probably kind to everybody.

The following year, in 4th grade, we had a teacher who had a reputation for being a very charismatic man. I found out the hard way that things were not what they seemed and people were only allowed to laugh at his jokes and no one elses'. I got moved back into 3rd grade. Very degrading and humiliating. It was clear that the only way to get back into 4th grade was to convince the 4th grade teacher that my spirit was broken.

I think the 3rd grade lady teacher understood what was required and helped me get back into the 4th grade.

Sorry to ramble but sometimes posts can trigger memories.

Overall, it was an excellent school and I got a fantastic elementary education.

[pnwmom]

40. The first state I lived in used it. And some of the teachers of older kids did "birthday spankings."

It never happened to me but I hated it. (I stayed home on my birthday the year I got that male teacher.)

It was a relief to move to a state where it was illegal.

[Mrs. Overall]

42. Yes. "Paddled" to the point of bruising by my 6th grade teacher (a man) in the mid 1970s, California

[AJT]

43. Up through junior high. A paddle. That was in the early 70s.

[Hamlette]

44. No way, and I went to school in the 50s

[Skittles]

45. in England, yes

[pnwmom]

47. According to Children's Defense Fund 2009-10 data, there were 150,000 uses of CP per year.

Some for major offenses, and some for minor -- like being tardy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2014/09/18/19-states-still-allow-corporal-punishment-in-school/?utm_term=.7e2ce4becd04

How many kids get hit? According to an analysis of federal data from 2009-2010, the Children’s Defense Fund reported in 2014 that 838 children were hit on average each day in public school, based on a 180-day school year, which would be 150,840 instances of corporal punishment a year — less than just a few years earlier but still a rather stunning number. African-American students and students with disabilities are disproportionately subject to corporal punishment in school, data shows.

How hard can kids be hit? District and state regulations are different; some, such as in Elizabeton City Schools in Tennessee, say that “bodily injury” is not permitted but many others don’t. There are numerous lawsuits in various states in which families say that their child has been severely hurt by corporal punishment.

SNIP

In one Florida school, Holmes High School in Bonifay, students in woodshop class actually make the paddles used for corporal punishment, according to this StateImpact Florida story. The paddle, it says, is about “16 inches long, 5 inches wide, and half an inch thick and made of ash wood,” deemed to be a “good size” by the school.

[bettyellen]

48. Yes, we had nuns in grade school and a crazy vice principal who was known to stuff kids in their

lockers after slamming them around. Both Catholic schools, my HS threw out a whole lot of people before graduation.

[Polly Hennessey]

49. For sure.

I went to a parochial school. Had my hand slapped with a ruler a few times. There was a paddle with holes in it on display. Also, got disciplined when I got home. In those days it was a twofer. Ha!

[pnwmom]

50. There was a DUer who'd made this issue her mission. I remember a lot of people

arguing with her, trying to justify the practice .

But she was right. It looks, from these responses, that the tide may have turned, at least among progressives.

[demmiblue]

52. Mine didn't. But...

I know someone a couple of years older than me who was subjected to it (he grew up in Florida).

[elleng]

55. No, never in my schools in NY City and State, '50s - 60s,

nor my daughters' schools in Maryland in the '80s-'90s.

Unheard of.

Use your WORDS.

[Mr. Ected]

56. Went to school in the late 60's through the mid-70's

And got a paddling once (5th grade) from an older female teacher who swung hard, missed and hit me in my lower back. The charge? Having blown my nose in class (I had tons of allergies, and for goodness sakes, it was springtime).

Another teacher had to witness and he stopped her before she lined up her next shot.

She "retired" after that year. Oddest schoolteacher I'd ever had. And certainly the most painful.

[syringis]

57. Here, corporal punishment are absolutely and totally forbidden

It is also forbidden to humiliate a kid in any manner like putting him in a corner with a hat with humiliating sentences or put shame on him verbally...

All these fall under the Law.

Here, kids go very early to school : at 2.5 years. It is not mandatory before 6 years but they all start at 2.5 years.

It helps socialization, to detect as early as possible a problem, to evaluate the child capacities in the aim to put him in the accurate learning environment, or if needed, in a specialized school,...

Between 4 and 6 years, they start to learn counting, the alphabet, to read in a ludic way. It is of course very basic but really helpful for the next years.
Many schools also teach basis of a foreign language. Sometimes in 2 languages.

Many lawmakers want to make it a mandatory because of the real benefits for kids to start as early as 2.5 years. They also practice a little sport, again in a ludic and fun way.


I didn't know corporal punishment were allowed in the US. There is no benefit in such methods.

[ProudLib72]

71. Oh yes, we are so civilized in the US!

There are huge differences between schools in wealthy neighborhoods versus poorer neighborhoods. I had a middle of the road school till half way through the fourth grade (9 years old). Then I moved to an affluent neighborhood and went to a very good school that actually cared about its students. However, for seventh grade I had to attend a school that was in a poor part of town. That was a real eye opener. Get this, in math class the person who sat directly behind me was 18 (and turned 19 mid-way through the year). That's right, I was twelve in seventh grade, and there was an eighteen year old "kid" in my class.

I know there are schools that are even worse than the one to which I went for seventh grade. Some schools are not much more than baby sitting centers. Those schools rely heavily on scare tactics and, in some cases, corporal punishment to keep the students in line. What the end goal is, though, I have no idea. They graduate with zero education and emotional scars.

[left-of-center2012]

59. Yes - even paddling as a "joke"

Junior high in the 1950's (Punxsutawney, PA) the teachers used wooden paddles.

There was even one male teacher who would pick a male student at random and have the student bend over the desk to receive a few whacks.
It was done as a joke and most laughed.
No one seemed it wrong, back then.

[davsand]

60. Yes. I watched the principal slam a kid against a wall.

I started grade school in 1966. I saw one kid bent over a desk and beaten with a ruler, and I was standing next to a kid who got grabbed by his shirt front and slammed a few times against a cement block wall. The male school principal (same guy that slammed a kid against a wall) spanked a girl because somebody said they saw cigarettes in her purse. I was never spanked, and nobody ever laid a hand on me. My dad was on the school board--unlike those other kids.

To this day I have a residual disdain for bullies and authoritarian assholes. I have no doubt that intense dislike took hold while watching an adult beat the shit out of little kids. Pretty sure that made me less popular when my own kid was in school.


Laura

[tblue37]

121. My 9th-grade science teacher's blackboard couldn't be used. The periodic table chart was pulled

down over it permanently to cover the hole made when he slammed a boy's head into it.

[thbobby]

62. Was called licks

I went to school in Michigan before 5th grade. No corporal punishment there, that I knew of.

After that, schools in North Texas. Definitely used here. A point of pride among guys was getting 20 licks a year.
On football team, the coach would give you one lick for every one you had in last 6 weeks on report card day. The coaches prided themselves on hard licks. Many would wear two or more pairs of underwear on that day.

I did go to Michigan Schools in 8th grade. No corporal punishment. The differenced between Texas and Michigan schools were like night and day. I learned multiplication tables up to 12 in third grade. In Texas, they were still being taught to 10 in the 5th grade. In Texas, we never studied the constitution.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

63. Never saw it - Minnesota in the '50s/early'60s.

No prayer in school either, though we did have the Pledge of Allegiance. I do have a vague recollection of hearing about a male teacher in junior high slamming kids against the wall. We were usually punished by having to sit at the back of the room or in the hall, or, in high school, being sent to the principal's office. That normally meant you'd get chewed out by the assistant principal and he'd call your parents. This happened to me when I called my art teacher a b*tch. But she deserved it.

[Chipper Chat]

64. Got paddled in 6th grade for passing a note to another classmate that had sexual content.

A girl intercepted it and gave to teacher who sent us to principals office. Got whacked pretty good. I never told my parents. 1951.

[guillaumeb]

65. Yes.

I entered primary school, a religious school, in 1958.

[bluecollar2]

66. Yes

Up to 6 of the best with a cane in England.

Not here in the States...

[Kaleva]

67. Yes. And one didn't tell parents about it 'cause you'll get it worse for causing trouble in school.

Many of the teachers who ripped the hair out of my head also had done the same to my Dad and uncles. They were tough old birds who didn't tolerate shit from anyone.

[zentrum]

68. Ruler rapping

Public school. Teacher in 10th grade was always threatening to rap us on the knuckles with her wooden ruler, which she slapped loudly on her open palm, as he walked up and down the aisles. This was to terrorize us into having the "right" answers.

We hated her and had a deep commitment to never remembering anything she ever taught.

Kids don't tell. Maybe they do today, but then, adults had all the power.

[zeusdogmom]

69. 5th grade teacher used a ping pong paddle

Until she broke it when she hit a kid on his head with the paddle. She would also crumple up brown paper towels and stuff the talking kids mouths with the towels - then put tape over the mouth. Besides being mean, she was an AWFUL teacher - had no business what so ever being in the field. Other teachers - very little corporal. Punishments ranged from writing 200 times "I will not talk in class unless Mrs. Miller gives me the permission to do so" or being forced to sit on a little chair in the hallway - a sure sign of disgrace. Gum chewers might have to wear the wad of gum on the end of the nose. But hitting - only the old witch in the 5th grade classroom. Now this is not to say there wasn't a sound paddling or two once the misbehaving child returned home from school. Phone call from school to parent - hated when that happened 'cause I got wholloped. I talked a lot. 😁. Think I might have been a tad bored. This was all in the 1950's, rural MN

[ProudLib72]

76. That reminds of a time I got in trouble teaching 5th graders

This was Hebrew school on Wednesdays and Sundays for a couple of hours. There was one kid who couldn't keep from talking about things that were completely off topic. I said something to the effect that we were going to have to tape his mouth shut. He taped his own mouth shut because he thought it was hilarious. Well, I got blamed for that one.

[raging moderate]

70. Chicago Public Schools, 1953-1966: N0!

Absolutely NO corporal punishment was administered to any of my classmates during my entire education in the Chicago Public Schools. Perhaps we were slightly regimented: marched around in lines, given long, long lessons in how to sit, stand, walk, line up, and stay silent for long periods of time. Still, the atmosphere was usually peaceful, and we received an excellent education overall.

[pnwmom]

78. Well, it was legal in Illinois then, so you were lucky.

But I know people in the suburbs that it happened to.

[d_r]

72. I got it many times

Graduated in Florida 86.

They had to keep doing it. So it must not have worked very well.

[Codeine]

77. Oh hell yeah. A lot.

I got the stuffing paddled out of me in grade school in the late 70s in Wyoming, with the classic old school wooden paddle with holes drilled in it.

I wasn’t even a bad kid, but I’ve got a really smart mouth and at that age I hadn’t learned how to dial it back yet.

[ProudLib72]

120. I've read your posts

Lucky for us those spankings did not get rid of your smart mouth.

[Ohiogal]

95. OMG how humiliating

I'm so sorry, that was just awful. What a way for adults to treat a child. They all should have been humiliated and fired.

[RobinA]

113. When I Look Back

to elementary school, which I started in 1963, it still makes me wonder at the amount of humiliation that was involved. This had stopped in my later elementary (same school) years and certainly by Jr. High. And my school was about as white, suburban, middle class as they come.

[ProudLib72]

122. You know what I bet?

I just bet that teacher was going to spank you but decided she was in the wrong when you pooped your pants. She dragged you to the principal's office to save face. Then she could tell the principal that you had pooped yourself and there was something wrong with you. That was a lame teacher!

[rateyes]

80. Yep. And if it happened to me at school,

it would happen again at home!

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

81. Never. Graduated HS 1957, Missouri. nt

[retread]

82. Early 60's. Pledge of Allegiance, prayer, paddled unruly boys. Made us "good" citizens!

[rownesheck]

83. 1980s

Elementary school did. I got it 3 times too! And I'm a quiet, good, kid! I did deserve it once though.

[Generic Brad]

84. Ruler whacks on knuckles

The nuns in elementary school used force to keep us kids in line. I saw at least one ruler used so forcefully on a kid that it broke in half.

I liked the teachers who were not in a religious order. They never struck anyone.

[regnaD kciN]

86. Depends on where I was living...

In the U.S., no. During my years in Switzerland, corporal punishment was allowed. I don't remember a teacher ever spanking a kid in the early grades (I don't think any of them would ever do it), but, in the 5th grade, we got a completely psycho teacher who acted out his aggression against his students. He didn't use a paddle, but he obviously felt he could slap kids with a ruler or pointer and, in one case, pushed a friend of mine down a flight of stone stairs on the way to recess because he thought the kid was a "slow learner" (more like he was from Spain, and didn't necessarily have the best grasp of French). I honestly started getting nightmares and not wanting to go to school for the first time when he was teaching us, but this was a culture where the authority of the teacher was sacrosanct and not to be questioned. Fortunately, someone must have noted something "off" about the guy, and, after a couple of months, he suddenly was no longer at school and we got assigned a normal person instead.

[GaryCnf]

88. More often than not

We went straight to juvenile or to jail.

[Hekate]

89. Yes. 1965 HS grad here. The vice principal had

...A wooden paddle for “bad boys”

Part of the culture part of the times

[sinkingfeeling]

90. Yes until 1960.

[Itchinjim]

91. Yep.

Fucking nuns.

[MineralMan]

92. Not in my schools in small town CA

in the 50s and 60s.

[reACTIONary]

97. You didn't move to Missiouri...

..... then, did you?

[MineralMan]

100. No...

[reACTIONary]

102. Well, not to dis my friends and relatives who live there, but...

.... good move, man!

[ProudLib72]

134. But if those kids don't stay off your lawn....watch out!

From all the stories you've told of your younger years, it seems like you fortunate to have had an idyllic childhood.

[nolabels]

140. That is a two sided coin

I grew up in a suburbia set up but was lucky enough to get in with some of the wrong crowd. Seeing the world not as wholesome as it's supposed to be, earlier in life, might prepare you for the surprise of what it really is about when you grow up. Not that it's good or bad but more of an either-or.

In junior high, the big three hole paddle was a way better way to do your punishment when you were in the vice principles office. Having to do after school detention, trash pick up or essays on why what we did was wrong just took up too much free time that could otherwise be spent hanging with cool friends and stuff.

Those were fun times back then. The teacher would write you up in a triplicate form called a 'referral' then send you to the VP's office with one copy of it. I guess they were lax on follow up paperwork a lot back then. Often some buddies would get written up and not even go to the vp's, but just skip out till the next class period. One real notorious friend one day got three on the same day and never went to see our paddle happy office dweller and never got caught for that one. Later on, though, they figured it this ploy out. The notorious friend, he got expelled for some pretty bad stuff later on. Looking back though, notorious seems like he might have been a manic-depressive type of guy.

[MineralMan]

145. My home town was a good place to grow up, for sure.

Not really idyllic, but small town California in the 50s was OK. Lots of places to explore, kids everywhere, due to the post-WWII baby boom, and a generally friendly atmosphere. That was true, at least, if you were born white, male and reasonably intelligent. If not, things weren't nearly as good.

I was lucky. That's all.

[Glorfindel]

93. I was in elementary school in the 1950's. Spanking was common. I only got one, for talking

too much, from my first-grade teacher. We stayed in touch over the years, and I was glad to be able to let her know I never got or deserved another spanking. I attended her funeral this past Monday. Corporal punishment was a last resort, but it was used.

[Tatiana]

94. Catholic school, yes. Public school, not after 3rd grade.

In Catholic school students were regularly paddled for infractions. Sometimes the teachers would put 3-4 rulers together, held together with rubber bands. You held your hand out to have your knuckles whacked.

Not sure it made a difference. Most of the students had parents in the household.

[reACTIONary]

96. In California, No... in Missouri...

Most of my elementary school career was spent in California - the San Fransisco area. Nope, no Corporal Punishment. The very concept would have been inexplicable.

Then I moved to rural Missouri. Practically the first day I was a bit tardy lining up at the end of recess, and as I scuttled past, WHACK, I received a swat on the but administered by the teacher overseeing the playground. With a paddle! Well, I knew I wasn't in Kansas any more!

[GoCubsGo]

98. Nope, and I went to Catholic school in the 1960s thru mid-70s.

Never was spanked. Nor, were any of my classmates. There was one elderly nun who had the reputation of whacking kids on the knuckles with a yardstick. However, I never saw it happen. Everyone thought she was horrible and mean. But, in fact, she was the best and most fair teacher in the school. Sure, she was a disciplinarian, but it was never the abusive sort of discipline. I doubt she had any sort of education degree, but she knew more about kids and how to teach them than just about anyone I had ever met. And, she did it without hitting them.

[angstlessk]

111. I was a regular to the ruler..

but open handed, not knuckles

Once cause I refused to pin up my hair, and once when I put a pin in a boys shirt that looked like it was blown up

I was an evil child

[LeftishBrit]

99. My school didn't, but it was still legal in UK schools until 1986

Or even later than that, if your parents were prepared to pay for the privilege (legal in private schools till the late 90s).

[Nevernose]

101. If only those kids had gone to church

Had the shooter or his victims just had more Jesus in their lives, this would never have happened. I’d suggest going to church, but the one I’m most familiar with is being torn down soon...



Oh well, as long as I can singlehandedly stave off tyranny with my AR-15, or just by golly enjoy target practice, then I guess any number of dead children — or mothers, husbands, friends, babies — is worth the price of freedom, right?

[ProudLib72]

123. Thoughts and prayers

T&P is just a little less effective than corporal punishment. As long as it lets those who do nothing feel better about themselves...

[MrsCoffee]

103. My father was arrested after my sixth grade vice principal used the paddle on me.

It always blew my mind that my dad beat up my vice principal after I got swatted. My dad used to beat me way worse than what I got at school. It was like, hey, only I can abuse that child!

[Texasgal]

104. There was paddling in our school

70's Texas here as well... but the parents had to sign a waiver of consent. My folks signed it ofcourse!

I never got paddled but I know some kids that did.

[ProudLib72]

125. I'm going to have to remember to ask my parents about consent

Like I said, the threat was there, but I never heard of anyone getting paddled, nor did I ever get paddled myself. One thing that might have saved me is that my mother worked from home and we lived only a couple blocks from the school. The principal could call my mom, and she would be down there within ten minutes.

There was one time I remember really wanting some kids to get paddled. We were at recess. I was playing in the dirt, and I felt something on my neck. I turned around and saw two older kids with evil grins. I just smiled back and went on playing. It was a few seconds later that I felt it: they had gathered ants on a stick and put them on my neck. I went to the nurse and go an ice pack. The unfortunate thing was I couldn't remember the faces of the kids who had done it.

[Sophia4]

105. There were lots of threats and one teacher had a paddle hanging right next to the

door, but I don't recall any actual spankings or paddlings even of the really obnoxious children.

I was very small and did not dare misbehave. We were all thoroughly intimidated by the paddle by the one teacher's door. Fortunately, I was never in his class.

[BannonsLiver]

106. Got swats as we called it several times in middle school

This would have been between 1982-84. This was in an upper middle class suburban public school. At that age myself and my friends would have preferred it over getting grounded. That was the one punishment I feared most. The swats were over and done with and often worn as a badge of honor, not that I condone corporal punishment in any form.

[Crunchy Frog]

107. Public elementary school in Indiana. Late sixties. Kindergarten.

Paddled once by princpal for selective mutism (Google if curious).

[newblewtoo]

108. Yes.

We also had a strictly enforced dress code.

[MelissaB]

114. I stopped teaching 11 years ago. Teachers/principals were still paddeling in Alabama.

Yeah, I know. It's Alabama...

[USALiberal]

115. In the 70s I got plenty of "swats". It was better than having to stay after school. n.t

[tblue37]

116. I graduated from high school in 1968. Yes, there was plenty of corporal punishment in

schools I attended at all levels--including high school.

[spanone]

117. yep....1950's & 60's

Catholic schools

[Marengo]

118. Yes! Rural ohio, early 70s to early 80s, had my fair share of paddling

[Daphne08]

119. Yes

but I was in grammar school in the '50s and in middle and high school in the 60's (in the South). It was common practice back then, at least, at the elementary level.

I began teaching in 1984 in a high school, and there were no spankings allowed. I don't know about the grammar schools.

[Desert grandma]

124. One of my earliest school memories

was a young boy being paddled by the teacher in first grade. Everyone was supposed to put their head on the ir desk while he was being paddled. This was around 1955-56. I remember that I started crying and was inconsolable because I felt so sorry for the little kid. I was a very smart little girl who could already read and write before I was in first grade and never got punished myself. However, I developed a lot of compassion and empathy for kids that were not so fortunate. Maybe that explains why I am so against corporal punishment and never used it on my own children.

[Ohiogal]

126. After reading these comments ...

No wonder so many of us Boomers are so fucked up

[Kaleva]

130. The Greatest Generation had it worse.

[callous taoboy]

142. I'll never forget one old witch I had in second grade in Texas-

Her favorite punishment for even the slightest infraction was to have you stand in front of the class, hold out your hand, and she'd smack the palm with a ruler over and over. It was sadistic, and I always felt like I was watching something completely sick.

[Wolf Frankula]

127. One High School I went to had it, One didn't

We had it in junior high and grade school. Paddling and spanking declined after an oversized 8th grade boy was sent to be paddled. I was told the principal raised the paddle, and the boy knocked the principal cold with one punch.

The high school that had corporal punishment seldom used it. There were parents who opposed it, and were prepared to sue the school. There was also a rumored organization called '3 for1'. If you were connected to it, and were spanked or paddled, you called a number and said who did it and how many times you were hit. Disguised older students waylaid the adult and hit them three times for every one time you were hit. I later found '3 for 1' didn't exist, but some school people were afraid of it.

Wolf

[ProudLib72]

132. This goes back to the "corporal punishment causes rebellion" theme

I'm suspicious of the story of the 8th grader, and the 3 for 1 obviously did not exist. However, both instances show the tendency to rebel instead of "learn discipline". So even under just the threat of corporal punishment, kids are going to think of revenge. Also, the closer the kids got to adulthood, the threat of corporal punishment decreased. I guess it stands to reason the teachers and principal were wary of the bigger kids who could inflict some damage in retaliation.

[Wolf Frankula]

135. I knew the 8th grader

He was bigger than most adults. But there was an English teacher he always called 'Sir'. He was suspended from school for hitting the principal. They thought of prosecuting, but his protective mother said he would plead self defense and she would mortgage their house to get a good lawyer if she had to. They didn't prosecute. The principal was embarrassed at being knocked out.

Wolf

[ProudLib72]

146. If I had been the principal, I would have been embarrassed, too

But it would have been for beating on children rather than being knocked out by one of them. It's probably a good thing he got knocked out cold. No telling what would have happened if he and the student got into a fight, especially if the principal was holding on to the paddle at the time. There could have been some serious injury. In this case, I have to agree with the mom. It's well worth suing over.

[LeftInTX]

128. No....went to mostly DOD schools - 1960s

When I came to Texas, my husband inherited a paddle as a principal. He never used it, because the district was phasing it out. He kept the paddle around the house as a novelty item for a few years, then threw it away.

[doc03]

129. Sure did in the 50s and 60s and we liked it

[DVRacer]

131. Yes and lots of them

All through the 80’s and until 94. From about second grade on probably once a month or so. I had a talking problem and my voice carry’s or is loud because I have a slight hearing problem. I have gone home with bruises then told I deserved it and to stop talking. Now they would realize I had impulse control issues a form of ADD. My school system was fast to jump to swatts for even minor offenses. Saw a girl get them because her skirt was too short then sent home. In lovely Owasso Oklahoma

[Luciferous]

133. No but my son's school does. I actually had to sign an opt-out form!

[Hoyt]

136. Oh yeah, in 60s.

[callous taoboy]

141. Myt brothers grew up in Texas in the 60s and 70s:

The one who was in sports got the shit beat and kicked out of him by coaches many times, got paddled so hard in the principal's office one time that it left his ass black and blue. By the time I came through Texas schools in the 70s they had eased off of corporal punishment, thankfully. My brother grew to really hate / resent those that beat him.

[Demsrule86]

143. In Catholic School until very recently this was done. My Mom made it clear that no one touched us

but her. So no we never were spanked or even hit with a ruler.

[ProfessorGAC]

144. I Saw It, Yes

Never happened to me, but i saw the ruler or the pointer across the knuckles in the 4th or 5th grade period (Last year of grade school was 1970)

Had two male teachers in 7th and 8th grade that had disruptors kneel on their own clenched fist, too.

Heard stories about the brothers at the Carmelite high school i went to, but that must have been over before i got there, because i never saw any such thing.