Corporal punishment is a disciplinary punishment practiced by an administrator or teacher to the body of a child that ranges in severity from a slap to a spanking. This form of punishment is still legal in nineteen states in America, including Florida. While corporal punishment is clearly prohibited in Seminole County as outlined in the Code of Conduct, it is still being practiced in other parts of the state.

History teacher Mrs. Kathy Charlton said, “I personally am not opposed to spanking children, but it should be the parents if that’s their policy. I would not agree with teachers or principals [if they were to administer such a punishment].”

Attention has recently focused on countless cases where corporal punishment was taken too far. In Henry County, Tennessee, a mother recalled how her fifth grader was paddled so hard that they had to take the child to an emergency room.

Other issues besides severity exist with corporal punishment. In one case in Texas, a teenage girl was spanked by her male assistant principal. The parents of the girl were more upset at the violation of district policy that stated that someone of the same sex should carry out corporal punishment. In response to the parents’ reaction, the school district’s board members voted to allow school administrators to paddle the opposite sex.

English teacher Mrs. Kiersten Bordner said, “Beating someone is too personal. As a parent. I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to touch my children.”

Physically punishing a child is a heated topic and could be taken the wrong way by many families.

Freshman Alyssa Ortman questioned, “How is corporal punishment, where children deliberately get hurt, legal, while other things such as gay marriage, which doesn’t put people in direct harm, are illegal in the same states.”

In 1977, the federal government ruled that the states should have the final decision on whether to allow corporal punishment in schools. Today, most school districts specify the status of corporal punishment in their codes of conduct.