The New York Times notes a disquieting fact. In the minority of states that still allow physical pounding (AKA corporal punishment) of school children, disabled children get a disproportionate share of the paddling. Read the story for an account of the six-year-old in Mississippi pounded by a 300-pound assistant principal wielding an inch-thick board.
Here’s the graphic that illustrates that only Mississippi whips more kids and that we are second only to Mississippi in whipping of disabled students. Makes you kind of proud, doesn’t it?
The Arkansas figures are even more disquieting because a significant chunk of Arkansas students — including all those in Pulaski County — are schooled in districts that don’t allow corporal punishment. Thus, our rate of whipping is higher than it appears where whipping is allowed. (It’s long been established, too, that minority kids are whipped in disproportionate numbers.)
Stop hitting kids. There are more effective ways to discipline. More from an Arkansas-based website with the same message.