World

Corporal punishment rife in U.S. schools, report shows

by Dave Keating | August 20, 2008 at 01:12 am

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I was shocked to learn from this report that 21 US states still allow teachers in public schools to hit students! It's also amazing to see who is getting hit. The report concludes that in the states which still allow corporal punishment, which are mostly in the South, blacks are far more likely to be hit that whites in public schools.

More than 200,000 children were hit as punishment in U.S. schools last year and in the South more blacks than whites are struck, two human rights groups said in a report released on Wednesday.

Texas accounted for a quarter of the instances of corporal punishment in the 2006-2007 school year, according to the study compiled by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The report, titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools," plays into a debate in America about the effectiveness of corporal punishment and its role in the classroom and home.

Twenty-one U.S. states still permit the use of corporal punishment in schools. In Texas and Mississippi children as young as 3 are struck for transgressions as minor as gum chewing, the report says.