Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Alabama public schools paddled almost 19,000 students during only one school year.

Courtesy of AL.com: 

While most of the nation long ago stopped striking children, Alabama principals continue to boast one of the highest batting percentages in the nation, paddling one child every four minutes. 

Across Alabama public schools, nearly 19,000 students were paddled in the 2013-2014 school year, according to newly available data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. The count is of individual students and does not indicate how many were paddled more than once. 

Unlike in most of the developed world, Alabama law explicitly allows adults to administer corporal punishment, and education leaders in Alabama find no problem with paddling in schools.

You ever get so incredibly angry that you cannot type because your hands are tightly balled up into fists?

Well that is exactly how I responded to this article.

I had to literally walk around my office shaking out my hands to loosen them up enough so that I could even start typing.

First thing NOBODY should be striking a child in their care in fucking 2016! And I goddamn well mean NOBODY!

And if you are a school district that paddles even 19 students a year you should take a long hard look at your disciplinary techniques, because they suck!

But if you live in a state in which the schools paddle nearly 19,000 children a year that is a broken public school system.

I have worked with the most difficult, most aggressive, and most unresponsive kids you can imagine.

Not once, not once, NOT ONCE, did I ever raise my hand to one of those kids.

Was that challenging at times? Is the fucking sky blue? Hell yes it was challenging.

But if you work with those kids you should have an education to fall back on, tools at your disposal, tricks up your damn sleeve that you can pull out when everything else has fails.

But the one thing you do not have as a fall back is a violent response.

The minute you strike a child you have failed.

You have failed yourself, you have failed your employer, and you have failed that child.

Apparently the Alabama public school system has done all three.

23 comments:

  1. What the hell? Do the parents have any rights to stop their children from being paddled?

    A story . . .
    In middle school I was unlucky enough to be in a hallway
    when a girl was being paddled (the 70s). I remember the sick look on the male teachers face every time he hit her.
    He was getting off. I made up my mind right then and there that no matter what---I would never put my hands on a child. And I never have.

    Count Alabama as still crazy after all these years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:43 AM

      The parents beat the kids at home, so they're a-ok with the kiddies getting beaten at school. For any little thing.

      Incidentally, beatings at home are directly correlated with aggressive acting-out behaviors at school. Alabama is raising more future criminals for the rest of us(who do NOt hit our kids) to deal with.

      Delete
    2. That's right 7:43, in my experience dealing with children who have severe behavioral problems more time than not you will learn that they have been physically or sexually abused at home.

      Often they have some minor behavioral problems to start with and then parents with limited abilities attempt to spank that behavior out of them and it only increases in intensity.

      You have to model the behavior that you want from children.

      If you want them to be bullies who physically abuse younger and weaker kids, then go right ahead and spank them at home.

      But if you want them to be productive caring members of society then that is who YOU need to be.

      Patience teaches patience, violence teaches violence.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:04 PM

      Paddlin' in the school canoe, you better belive thats a paddlin'.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXQR-cPXlmY

      Delete
  2. I share your recrimination. I would hope that there are more dedicated and balanced educators out there like you demonstrate in your posts concerning your kids.

    Incidentally Alabama is in the lowest five states for math and ACT scores. So those teachers must be so "roll tide Crimson" after paddling butts that teaching and nurturing is secondary.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:35 AM

    You are correct. This deplorable and despicable. Corporal punishment at home is bad enough, but for a school official to do this criminal in my eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:59 AM

    THIS! ;-0 Thanks Jim!
    https://www.facebook.com/georgiamcbride/posts/10209493604269594

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lindsay8:04 AM

    When my family moved from NY to TN, when I was in the sixth grade, the still paddled. It was the first time I had ever heard about it and we were all horrified. It was phased out not long after that. Now only certain school administrators can put hands on students, event to break up a fight. I think that idea of school base police officers started out good but has gone to far.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:24 AM

    Even in 1916 there was no reason for corporal punishment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:30 AM

      How old are you anyway?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:48 AM

      You really hate me don't you 11:30?

      Delete
  7. Anonymous8:33 AM

    When I lived in the south for a few years in the 80's the shop teachers prided themselves with their woodworking abilities & paddle making. (This was high school). They paddled as well as made boys shave in the office if they weren't clean shaven. This is also a school that spent so much on the football program that I had to buy my own paper for art class. People were still burning crosses on people's lawns too. This was 1984 in Louisiana. I wouldn't be surprised if it was still happening now. What a hell hole that place was.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:47 AM

    The only time an adult should be touching a child's buttocks is if child is too little to clean itself off(diaper change), or if the adult is a doctor performing a needed medical service.

    Anything else is a form of perversion. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:47 AM

    "Grooms, who also goes by the name Kraigen Simmers, will not spend any time in prison after Judge Myron Gookin handed him a 10-year suspended sentence.",After Juvee
    HE WILL DO IT AGAIN! pray JESUS.......
    http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/judge-spares-prison-for-iowa-teen-who-raped-toddler-girl-in-live-video-and-plotted-to-assault-boy/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous9:23 AM

    Gee missy get this. I read on Az website that the head of dept of education used taxpayer money and website to endorse trump. And az is last in education. How much has Donald paid these clowns to ruin their careers? gee? missy? lying for trump and going to jail for it is not family like.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous9:42 AM

    Hey the behavior, manners, morals and respect start at home and from there is must be in the class schedule from K-12. It starts in womb and continues in home. Children learn from their parents and other children and the adults who taught them. Everyone Matters in a childs life. And you can hear it in a child voice and words. Listen.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous9:57 AM

    Once you wake up to the fact that the Old Testament should be titled The Sadists' Guide, you'll no longer be the least bit surprised that the Bible Belt is home to sadistic child rearing. Contrary to the beliefs of fundies, sadistic assholes is not made noble by spouting Bible verses.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous10:24 AM

    Read a book recently where spanking at a certain age is sexual. When I was in school here in Alaska, teachers spanked me back in the sixties. It didn't make me a better person. I just go resentful as hell. Then we pass it on to the next generation. Neverending story.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:14 PM

      I believe spanking is still quite common in Alaska. I do wish they would concentrate their efforts on decreasing teen pregnancy. So many of the valley girls get pregnant even in their first year following high school, which is a travesty. Many of them are very religious, even hyperreligious. They love God and fucking. Even sunny ama felación. But still had kids young.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:27 PM

      Lol! She does live to suck a boy's pepe!

      Delete
    3. Cesar D2:21 PM

      Jajaja! Gryphen is stroking out over this. Calm down!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous12:04 PM

    Mayor of Hubbard in Ohio>
    http://freethinker.co.uk/2016/09/14/devout-christian-admits-child-rape-and-blames-his-victim/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Grew up in a quite religious home in the Missouri Ozarks that firmly believed in the biblical adage of, "Spare the rod, spoil the child." Yet even my father, one more than happy to deal out harsh punishment over various crimes of imagined or real disrespect or forgotten chores among other reasons was adamantly opposed --to the astonishment of the school board and most people in our area who knew him-- the use of corporal punishment by schools and adult authority figures other than the father or mother. If the parent wasn't doing a good enough job for the kid to do something bad enough to end up in detention, suspension, or worse then they need to be called up to do the honors if the people in charge are so hard-up to call for that kind of treatment. While not a fan of the way many kids act now, nor of anybody of any age not treating one another with respect, there's no call for using physical force to teach them what setting proper examples and demonstrating concepts of empathy will do much better.

    ReplyDelete

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