. . . what are the chances Texas would ban corporal punishment in schools?
The Washington Post reports a California lawmaker abandoned her efforts to get a ban on spanking (by anyone, not just teachers), after rather massive opposition developed. She had never introduced the bill.
Instead, San Francisco Bay area Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced a more narrow bill on Thursday she said would help district attorneys more easily prosecute parents who cross the line from punishment into physical abuse.
Lieber is seeking to classify a laundry list of physical acts against young children, including hitting with a belt, switch or stick, as unjustifiable and grounds for prosecution, probation or a parental time-out _ a class on nonviolent parenting.
The Texas bill banning corporal punishment in schools is still seriously dead.
A commenter in another thread has some extensive talk and links about corporal punishment in Utah schools:
https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/utahs-legislature-boosts-education-across-the-board/#comment-20486
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It was a cigarette case that saved Theodore Roosevelt, wasn’t it?
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Bug Girl wrote:
“Amazingly, the Bible is often used as justification for this treatment :( ”
I remember a Woody Allen story from when he did standup comedy that relates to this. He said that he always kept a bullet in his chest pocket for good luck and one day he was walking down the street in NY when someone hurled a Bible out of a window in a tall building, which struck him in the chest. He said that if it hadn’t been for that bullet, the Bible would have gone right through his chest and would have killed him instantly.
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As someone who went to high school in Texas, I’m not surprised in the least that it’s still on the books. We were smacked regularly, from formal “pops” with a board, to on the knuckles with a ruler.
Amazingly, the Bible is often used as justification for this treatment :(
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I’m shocked that corporal punishment is still on the books in 21 states. I thought it had been banned long ago.
Wow! Now I’m really shocked. I was about to brag that it had been banned across Canada since the mid 70’s, but I just looked it up and discovered it is still legal in 5 provinces, although it’s not clear that it still being used, despite being technically legal.
I will admit that as a parent I did spank, but only when the kids were too young to understand more rational consequences. Most of the “spanking” amounted to the proverbial slap on the wrist. By the time they get to school age there are more effective ways of dealing with them.
The problem is that when you take away spanking, some parents just give up on discipline altogether. They feel that they can’t spank and they don’t know what else to do, so they let these spoiled rotten little monsters run wild.
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