After having received a back-to-school document from her daughter who went to Alabama Elementary School, Wendy Chandler discovered that the note was a permission slip. The document would have allowed school staff members to carry out schemes of corporal punishment for children as a new disciplinary rule
Mrs. Chandler did not permit this and explicitly wrote her sentiment. "I cannot imagine how it would ever be ok to show violence towards anyone," Mrs. Chandler said. "Hitting a child is beyond disgraceful."
Little did Mrs. Chandler know about the policies in Alabama that allowed corporal punishment to be implemented in schools. Recent study by the University of Texas, called the Social Report, carried out earlier this month illustrated how often corporal punishment occurred in schools between 2011 and 2012.
The Huffington Post found that southern states including Mississippi and Alabama allow such practices to continue. Data reveals that over 163,000 students were victim to corporal punishment during that school year.
A greater concern is that black children stood at a much higher receiving end of these punishments, despite the larger white population pervading in such schools. Black students, males and students with disabilities are substantially more likely to be physically disciplined than their counterparts.
As the school rules of physical discipline started unfolding right in front of her eyes, Mrs. Chandler rightly decided to pull out her daughter from Alabama Elementary and homeschool her. She tried her best to gather other parents' support against corporal punishment laws, but her efforts didn't garner much interest.
Corporal punishment may be debatable in the philosophical domain. Objectively, science is the best lens to view things.
Science rules against corporal punishment. It is not so hard to understand that physical torture of a child severely impacts his or her psychological health.
Why else are numbers growing of children, who are emotionally unstable and among those who commit suicide because of their irrational belief that they're all alone? Are they helped by the enforcement of such laws? Statistics don't suggest so.
