While one Georgia school district is moving to reinstate use of corporal punishment, officials with most Northwest Georgia systems said — although paddling is allowed — it is not common.

“Corporal punishment is allowed in Georgia, but it is rarely practiced in our schools,” Catoosa County Superintendent Denia Reese said. “Most principals will call the parent prior to administering corporal punishment.”

Georgia law leaves corporal punishment policies up to each county board of education.

In Twiggs County in Central Georgia, school board members have reinstated corporal punishment, believing the possibility of a paddling will deter bad behavior.

Officials said detention and scolding have not worked. Last year there were more than 300 student misconduct incidents and 62 fights among the 1,100 students in Twiggs County schools, according to a state report and The Associated Press.

In Northwest Georgia, counties such as Walker, Catoosa and Dade have similar paddling policies that reflect state law and involve caveats, such as “corporal punishment shall not be excessive or unduly severe.”

Superintendent of Chickamauga City Schools Melody Day said paddling is a last resort and rarely used. She said it is typically an administrative procedure, although teachers are allowed to use corporal punishment.

Twiggs County parents will have to sign a permission slip to allow their child to be paddled by an administrator, and there must be a witness in the room.

It has not always been that way, and some places it still isn’t.

In Dade County, school board Chairman Nathan Wooten said parents must let the school know if they don’t want their child to be paddled. He said he doesn’t think corporal punishment is used much in Dade’s middle and high schools, but said it is used in elementary schools.

Twenty-eight states have banned corporal punishment, and officials said the issue provokes heated debate.

“Principals and their support staff believe that consequences should be appropriate and instructional in order to modify behavior, not simply to punish a student,” said Elaine Womack, spokeswoman for Walker County schools.

LaFayette, Ga,. resident Roger Carlton said he has encouraged Walker County school officials to paddle his children if it is needed.

“We’ve had to make them spank them,” Mr. Carlton said about his three sons being disciplined by school officials.

“If they need it, they need it,” he said, adding that obviously he doesn’t want children to be permanently or badly hurt.

Ridgeland High School principal Robert Smith said attitudes about corporal punishment have changed since he began teaching in the ’70s.

“When I first started, corporal punishment was pretty effective in changing the behavior,” he said. “Public perception of paddling has changed.”

Today, opinions vary about the effectiveness of paddling.

Most school officials in Northwest Georgia said there are more effective methods.

Former elementary school teacher Chris Chambers, who now serves as coordinator of student and personnel services for Walker County schools, said his system has a progressive punishment policy with more viable options for dealing with discipline problems.

Mrs. Day also said in Chickamauga faculty members try to catch behavior problems before they escalate to a situation that would merit corporal punishment.

The practice of paddling has been on the decline since ’70s, officials said.

Mr. Smith remembered a time when getting paddled at school was nothing compared to what could be expected from parents when the student got home.

But today, liability issues and new parental perspectives have most area administrators using corporal punishment as a last resort, or not at all.

“Today, you give children a verbal reprimand, and parents want to come up and fuss because their child’s self-esteem got damaged,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s a whole new world.”

Comments