Paddling in school: What I witnessed when I was a student.

[Are_grits_groceries]

I went to school from 7th to 12th grade where paddling was an acceptable punishment. I was never paddled, but I got a first hand and close up look at it in action. It has been a brazillion years since this happened, but I can recall it in detail.

It happened in my 9th grade math class. There was a student who would not behave. He didn't do anything that was a major offense, but he constantly disrupted everything. He was the kind of kid the other students didn't like, and we wanted him to stop too. I sat behind him, and I used to kick his desk and warn him that the teacher would paddle him.

I think his attitude was 'paddle,shmaddle.' How bad could it really be? Truth be told I think a lot of us were of that mind. We hadn't been paddled or seen it so we used our own experience with punishment as a judge. I got switched which was annoying, but I could deal with it.

One fateful day, he went to far. I don't know whether it was one particular act that set the teacher off or it was just the accumulation of things. The teacher told him to get up and bend over his desk. I remember that he had on a light yellow shirt with stripes. Then the teacher went into a backroom and got his weapon. It was a weapon no matter what euphemism was used.

He brought out an object that was about 2 feet long with a handle. The paddle part was about 12 inches wide, and it had holes in it. We had been told that the holes made it sting more as if that was a selling point. The handle had grip tape on it. I got a very bad feeling when I saw what he was going to use.

To my unending regret, I had a front row seat. The student bent over the desk and then the teacher paddled him. That really doesn't convey what I saw. He hit him so hard that he flew over the desk and landed on the floor.

I thought "Holy shit! I just wanted him to shut up. I didn't want him killed!" There was dead silence in the room. Sometimes kids can be cruel and make fun of others even in times like this. However, nobody said a word until the class was over, and we were at lunch.

A group of friends and I sat at lunch in shock. We didn't eat a bite. One person finally said,"I don't think some baseballs are hit that hard." Another kid who was always up to something said he would avoid messing around in that class. The teacher had moved his problem elsewhere. I pointed out that other teachers may outsource their punishment to him.

The dynamic in the class changed after that. What once had been a learning environment was now a classroom with fear and violence as a backdrop. Before that episode, we enjoyed the class and competed to see who could get the most questions right. After it, we moved very warily at all times. It wasn't fun anymore.

That is still one of the most brutal events I have ever witnessed. It wasn't punishment. It was a crime. I'm not sure if the administrators knew exactly what he did. They probably did and let him get away with it. Why that level of violence was accepted, I'll never know. If we mentioned it to anybody, they didn't seem to understand what was really going on.

Hitting a student is wrong. I don't care how much force is used. It may solve an immediate problem, but it doesn't get to the core and the cause of the misbehavior. "Paddling" does nothing to really modify behavior in the long run. It just changes the course and form of the behavior and not in a good way.

I can still hear and see that hit to this day. I cringe all over again.

[cali]

1. horrifying story

and so different from my experience in the early sixties- my parents sent us to a private progressive school where we called the teachers by their first names (with a Mr or Miss stuck on before the name), where we danced around the maypole and had a good morning sun ritual every day.

[ima_sinnic]

2. even though it was 54 yrs ago, I remember like yesterday a girl getting paddled in 4th grade

because she forgot and left a homework paper at home. It was not as brutal as you describe (I think it was more like a ping-pong paddle). A boy was also paddled at some point, I forget why--but both times I felt in shock and started shaking with disbelief, fear, helplessness and anger. It was especially hard for me because my family had recently moved from a rather progressive suburb of Boston where I had a wonderful male teacher on whom I had a crush to a podunk backwater town in upstate NY where the 4th grade teacher was a mean old lady with a bad repuation for being scary and mean.

If we who only witnessed it remember it so vividly, think how the victims must still feel.

[seabeyond]

3. in my experience growing up. never paddle. never to office. both brothers, often enough on both

scores.

never done in class. always in private of principals office. and never end of world. didnt stop them from misbehaving. doesnt effect them today.

it was never done by the teacher, in the classroom, in front of teachers and this was california... the progressive state.

i dont believe in hitting kids to have responsible behavior, btw.

[Are_grits_groceries]

4. It was done in front of students.

I was in the 9th grade then.

[Mojorabbit]

28. It was done in the principals office in private

when I was growing up. I got paddled with the big one with the holes in 10th or 11th grade. It was a badge of honor among my friends in those days (1970s) and I got a standing ovation after from them. I am a female and I don't remember it being a big deal. I was used to my mom wielding a flip flop though and I was a fairly rebellious child. I am sure it would be worse for younger kids.

[KatyaR]

5. Yeah, I had a science teacher in the seventh grade

who had a paddle like that. He did all the paddling for the school, and he would do it out in the hallway. He loved to see how far he could throw you down the hall and then have you come back and do it again.

I was terrified in that class, I don't think I ever raised my hands or spoke in the entire year, and I was always scared that my homework wouldn't be good enough for him. I was afraid I would do something that would cause me to be paddled.

[Atman]

6. I was paddled in school

"Corporal punishment" was allowed when I was in Jr. High. But it was never left to the discretion of individual teachers, and never with the added humiliation of doing it in front of a whole classroom. We were sent to the Assistant Principal's office, where you discussed your transgessions and your punishment. Like anything else in life, politics entered into it. I was a so-called popular kid, and my parents lived on the proverbial good side of town, so when I got sent to the office, the Dean would ask how my family was doing, what our plans for vacation were, general friendly chit chat. It always ended (yes, I got sent up more than once) with the Dean telling me to stop doing things to make the teacher mad and, oh, "tell the other kids that I hit you x times and that your butt hurts."

That final line speaks to my bigger objection: just as with capital punishment in our justice system, privilege and politics makes the system inherently unfair. Those without good communication skills (good laywers) and proper connections generally know they can work the system, while those without such means get the punishment. You can't legislate fairness in these situations. The only alternative is to find non-corporal means of discipline.

[Lyric]

7. When I went to elementary school, paddling was still okay.

There was a red-haired boy named Ricky who was constantly getting into trouble. He was mean to all the other kids, and extremely aggressive in school. One day we were standing at the top of the stairwell and he leaned over and spit down the stairs. Unfortunately for him, the 6th grade history teacher was just coming up the stairs at that moment, and nearly got spit upon. She chased him all the way to his classroom, dragged him out (and me as well, since I saw what happened) and took us to the principal's office. She was absolutely furious. They called his Dad on speakerphone to tell him that they were going to paddle Ricky, and I heard his Dad say "Whip his ass good! And then when he gets home, he's going to get it again with my belt!" He went on a rant about how badly he was going to beat his son. Ricky was crying and terrified. I was feeling sick to my stomach, listening to that crazy man.

Everybody in the office kind of went quiet, and the principal whispered something to the teacher and she nodded. She got on the phone and told the Dad that there'd been a mistake--that another red-haired child had actually been the one who'd done it, and that she was terribly sorry for bothering him about it. She ended the call, gave Ricky a hug, and told him that in the future, she expected his behavior to improve.

I was only 11 at the time, but I understood what had happened. They'd realized that this poor child was probably beaten and abused at home, and that their own anger at the situation had almost instigated a beating that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't contacted his Dad in anger. They decided that saving him from THAT was more important than "punishing" him. Believe it or not, that moment of them acting to PROTECT him rather than to hurt him really made a difference in Ricky's behavior. He developed a close relationship with that particular teacher, and he started losing some of his aggression toward the other kids.

When we all went on to junior high school the next year, Ricky disappeared. We found out later from his cousin that he and his little sister been taken away from their parents and placed into foster care because someone had called CPS to report suspected child abuse. To this day, I have always wondered if that "someone" was our 6th grade history teacher. Almost simultaneously, our county's school board voted to end corporal punishment in all county schools. I doubt if Ricky's incident was the ONLY catalyst for that, but I am certain that it was ONE of the reasons why the school board made that choice.

Anyway, that's my story FWIW.

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. Those were some incredibly

intelligent and kind educators.

[DirkGently]

29. Wow. That story says a lot about a lot of things.

[lunatica]

8. I know how shocking it is to see a classmate hurt like that

Once the teacher actually had enough of her favorite student's mouthing off in a clownish way. She told him to stand up and then slapped him across the face hard in front of the entire class. The silence was profound. No one hated that student after that. It has stayed with me all these years. I'm 61 so it was almost 50 years ago, and I also cringe when I remember. First she created his misbehavior by encouraging him then she broke him by punishing him for it. All these years I've seen her as being 100% at fault. The memory actually makes me feel slightly nauseated.

[BHO]

9. i was watching MTV

and there is an episode of a show where they go to a high school in Arkansas and Missouri. They still paddle there but students who get in trouble have the choice between a paddling and an ISS. If you want to get a paddling you have to get a signed consent form by you and your parents. I'm not sure what to think of that.

[lunatica]

12. What's ISS?

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. In School Suspension

OSS is Out of School Suspension.

[NNN0LHI]

10. Great story grits

Corporal punishment was still in force when I went to school too.

It was a horror show.

Don

[Odin2005]

11. IMO anyone who uses a paddle should be arrested for child abuse.

And never be allowed near kids and teens again.

Violence only creates a sociopathic culture.

[polly7]

13. The Sisters who taught at our school were the only ones that

gave us the strap. Strange considering there were only two of them and they always ended up crying. We tried the hair thing, the older kids said pull out a hair and put it on your hand to make it split when she hit you ... that never seened to work. Opening up a red pen to make your nose bleed after they smacked worked every time, they'd cry right off. :)

[LWolf]

15. The policies in CA, or at least in the district I worked in, changed in

the 80s. My kindergartner had a session with the principal in which he was introduced to the paddle; not touched with it, just shown it and had the experience explained to him. These days he would have been suspended or worse; he brought his dad's pocket knife to school to "share" (without our knowledge; picked it up off our dresser, where his dad had emptied his pockets.)

It was a wooden paddle, about an inch thick, maybe 6" X 12", and yes, it had holes.

I'm glad that our public schools have left striking children behind, no pun intended. There is still a very large contingent of the American populace that believes that sparing the rod "spoils the child," though. It's still legal for parents to hit children. Private schools can still hit children.

As a teacher, I've noticed that those children disciplined with the rod don't respond as well to other methods. Those that have never been hit do. I often wonder what is hardwired about discipline, crime, and punishment that each group takes forward into adulthood.

[Happyhippychick]

16. The saddest part to me is that this boy probably had an issue - ADHD or Aspberger's - that made it

difficult for him to control himself.

I'm NOT sorry that you witnessed it, if only that it made you aware of the injustice and horrific nature of this barbaric act.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: my life's work is devoted to making corporal punishment ILLEGAL in this country.

[struggle4progress]

18. I remember in 4th grade one of my friends got paddled almost every day

for not doing his homework. He was actually one of the smartest kids in the class, and he was much humiliated by the daily paddling. The paddling wasn't solving the underlying problem, either, which was that his parents' marriage was headed towards a messy divorce and his homelife was an emotional rollercoaster. The teacher was one of the worse teachers I ever had: she was erratic and flew in rages unpredictably; I think she was mentally ill

[raccoon]

19. Paddling was accepted when I was in school too. I still remember a boy being paddled

in front of the class in 6th grade. That teacher/principal was a real bully, liked to scare students, and also liked for the girls to come up and ask him for help, and stand beside him at his desk so he could put his arm around them and feel their boobs.

I didn't go up for help when I found that out.

To their everlasting credit, my mother and some other parents got this pedophile asshole fired. Nowadays I would think he'd have his teaching license revoked, which should've happened then.

[unblock]

20. corporal punishment is always evidence of a lacking in the one doling it out.

better parents or better teachers can always find a way to restore order and earn the respect they need to control the situation.

i was whacked once in the palms with a splintery rod when i was a student in france. i was pretty new and didn't speak french well enough to understand why. i only later found out it was because my hands were supposedly dirty (which they weren't, but that hardly matters).

i told my mother and she read them the riot act and they never touched me again. american privilege at its finest. many of my friends were not so lucky, and i saw plenty of them basically just beaten up by the teacher. all for being sloppy or messy or making mistakes or whatever.

ridiculous, really.

[Oilwellian]

21. My husband was paddled

Public school, Louisiana, early 70's. His coach had a fondness for paddling the football team when they didn't practice hard enough. Many years later, the same guy was arrested at a rest stop for soliciting a young, male prostitute.

[elias7]

22. "flew over the desk"???

While I appreciate the story and sentiment, is it possible your buddy helped the effort by leaping at contact? And how did he respond to the beating; you never really mention that. If he was traumatized, I can understand your reaction, but you don't say what his response ultimately was.

I just see it as physically possible for a presumed 100+ pounder could get launched over a desk by a short handled paddle. Not to be a jerk about it, though...

[Are_grits_groceries]

23. I made it all up.

:sarcasm:

[elias7]

26. Don't get me wrong

I am sorry to come off as questioning your story. It's just the way my mind works. I've seen paddling and I think it is inappropriate and in your case, horrific. You don't have to answer my questions if it makes you uncomfortable. Sorry...:(

[Are_grits_groceries]

27. I saw what I saw.

The mechanics of it weren't on my mind until now. What fun to dissect that moment according to the laws of physics. In addition, I didn't think that witnessing such an act wasn't sufficient enough to qualify as being traumatic.

*sigh*

[elias7]

33. Do you know what ever happened with the kid who was paddled?

The recent news story associating corporal punishment and aggression makes me wonder if his life trajectory changed as a result...

[bread_and_roses]

24. In the second grade, my brother was beaten every day

no kidding. every day. the teacher hated him. In seventh grade i saw two boys beaten with a paddle in study hall - i nearly threw up. it was brutal and savage. i have every sympathy for a parent who momentarly loses it and hits a child; i've done it myself, to my eternal shame. it is utterly reprehensible but understandable given the stresses of the isolated nuclear family, and among the wonderful attributes of children are that most will forgive and forget a momentary, a-typical, non-injurious lapse like that. but deliberate, conciously - chosen beating as an act of punishment (and yes, i include what people like to euphemistically call "spanking"), in the home or in school or anywhere else is a viscious, criminal act.

[zbdent]

25. what you describe was not paddling ... it was physical abuse ...

when the kid is sent up and over the desk by the weapon, it's far too much ...

[tinymontgomery]

30. Went to a catholic school

Went to a catholic school for 9 years. First 8 were elementry, nuns were wicked with the ruler on the hands.

[eridani]

34. Me too. But they pretty much left it at that

One whack and that was it. Never saw any of the really horrible assaults that the OP and others described. Verbal abuse could get pretty nasty though.

[davsand]

31. I watched one time while the Principal smacked a kid against a wall.

I saw him grab the kid by the shirt front and just start smacking his back against a wall. I was probably about 11 or 12 years old at the time (1971-1972.) Kids were spanked at school as a matter of course when I was there, both in the classrooms and in the office. I think the one that has bothered me to this day was the 8th grade girl that got spanked because a teacher SAW a pack of cigarettes in her purse when it came open. The girl was not smoking on school grounds and actually had them INSIDE her purse--and the school beat her for having them.

As a parent now, I would probably be leaving blood on the walls if anyone laid hands on my daughter like they did back then. I look back on my experience in school and I realize just how very strict it was for being a public school. We girls were not allowed to wear pants or shorts to school, let alone imprinted t-shirts or anything else that presents problems now. I sure would not want to go back to those days again.



Laura

[Tikki]

32. When I was in 6th grade (early 60's) the teacher lined...

all the class up to get spats because most
of the class talked in line while waiting to enter the music classroom.

Before it was my turn to get hit, I simply walked out of the classroom
and walked home.

Now my mother wasn't my champion often...but she came unglued at the thought
of an adult, pretty much a virtual stranger, hitting her child and she
really lit into that teacher.




Tikki