Punishment or Perverse Principal?

[Joe Guy]

Mom Angry That Male Vice Principal Spanked Her Daughter

Rather than spend two days in in-school suspension for allegedly letting another student copy her classwork, Taylor Santos, a well-regarded student and athlete at Springtown High School, near Fort Worth, Texas, chose to get paddled.

As her mother, Anna Jorgensen, told ABC News affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas, Taylor didn't want to miss any classes because "her grades are very important to her."

So Santos went to the vice principal's office to request a paddling. She called her mom, who said that as long as her daughter was OK with it, so was she. According to school policy, parents who don't want their children to subject to corporal punishment must submit a written statement each year.

What neither Jorgenson nor Santos knew was that a man - the vice principal - would be doing the swatting, while a female watched. As far as Jorgensen knew, she said, school policy mandated that males spanked males and females spanked females.

Because of the force with with Santos was struck, her bottom was fire-engine red and looked as if it had been "burned and blistered," said Jorgensen, who took photos as evidence.

While paddling in public schools has been outlawed by 31 states, as well as by Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, the Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that it was legal unless it has abolished by local authorities, according to the web site Corpun.com.

It is legal in 19 states; efforts to ban it in Wyoming, North Carolina, Louisiana and Texas failed. However, in 2011 laws were introduced in both Texas and North Carolina giving parents the right to exempt their students from paddling.

"A lot of people think it was abolished 20 years ago," Jimmy Dunne, president of People Opposed to Paddling Students (POPS), told ABC News. A former math teacher in the Houston Middle Schools, Dunne founded POPS in 1981 and has been the spanker and spankee. But he refused to participate after noticing that some teachers were "getting sadistic pleasure out of hitting these kids."

He has actively tried to get schools to curb the practice ever since, but he has met with resistance. In June, he appeared at an anti-corporal punishment in schools rally in Washington, D.C., and will be attending a school board meeting on Monday after a 13-year-old student at Barbers Hill Middle School in Houston was covered with welts and bruises after a paddling he received for getting three consecutive zero grades.

"Members of the Texas legislature say, 'I was paddled, and I turned out OK,'" he said. "Or they say they want to leave it up to the local district to decide. They think it's good discipline. But it's legalized child abuse. I always say if this was done away from the school, the person would be arrested."

The day after her daughter's paddling, Jorgensen called the vice principal to complain, but was told it was "normal for her bottom to look like this after receiving swats." The vice principal added that he had no idea about the same gender swatting, Jorgensen said.

Neither Jorgensen, nor the vice principal nor Springtown ISD Superintendent Mike Kelley, was available for comment by ABC News. But according to WFAA, Kelley is going to ask the school board to abolish the same gender policy, since adhering to it can be difficult on some campuses.

Jorgensen told WFAA that she will be at the school board meeting to encourage them not to abolish the same-gender policy.

"I think Taylor is proof that we need to keep that policy," she said. "I don't believe a man intentionally meant to do that to her, but it still happens, because men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls."

source

[Scooter]

But it would be ok for a man to be hitting a 96-pound boy???

Did she choose her punishment thinking that a woman wouldn't be able to hit her hard enough for it to hurt? I don't think corporal punishment has any place in schools, but both the girl and her mother chose this route, so now they should suck it up and quit whining.

[Lord Jim]

There's absolutely no indication or allegation that there was anything untoward here...

But I have to say the whole idea of "spanking" high school aged kids as a form of discipline, strikes me as a little odd....

[dales]

It's TEXAS, Jim.

Gawd whar a backward state!

[rubato]

Spanking in schools and executions have shown zero utility in either improving education or reducing crime, the states who don't do these things or do them less have outcomes just as good in both respects*. I thought it would be interesting to cross-correlate both as examples of pure sadism and see how well one behavior predicts the other.

I only found data from 2008 about spanking so I used execution totals from the last three years to have a better comparison with respect to time.

There is an amazingly close correlation. 12 of the top 14 execution states are accurately predicted by the spanking states and ALL of the top 8.

In the reverse direction: 9 of the top 11 spanking states are predicted by their presence on the killing list.

Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi are in the top 4 in both lists.

Spanking by state:

State
********** # students hit
Texas ********** 49,197
Mississippi ********** 38,131
Alabama ********** 33,716
Arkansas ********** 22,314
Georgia ********** 18,249
Tennessee ********** 14,868
Oklahoma ********** 14,828
Louisiana ********** 11,080
Florida ********** 7,185
Missouri ********** 5,159
North Carolina ********** 2,705
Kentucky ********** 2,209
South Carolina ********** 1,409
New Mexico ********** 705
Ohio ********** 672
Indiana ********** 577
Idaho ********** 111
Kansas ********** 50
Arizona ********** 16
Colorado ********** 8


Executions by states for the past 3 years:

Rank STATE ******** last 3 years total
1 TEXAS ******** 37
2 OHIO ******** 15
3 ALABAMA ******** 11
4 MISSISSIPPI ******** 11
5 ARIZONA ******** 10
6 OKLAHOMA ******** 9
7 GEORGIA ******** 6
8 FLORIDA ******** 5
9 VIRGINIA ******** 4
10 DELAWARE ******** 2
11 IDAHO ******** 2
12 MISSOURI ******** 1
13 SOUTH CAROLINA ******** 1
14 LOUISIANA ******** 1
15 UTAH ******** 1
16 WASHINGTON ******** 1


http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934191.html
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/number- ... egion-1976

Yours,
rubato

* Better in most cases.

[MajGenl.Meade]

The day after her daughter's paddling, Jorgensen called the vice principal to complain, but was told it was "normal for her bottom to look like this after receiving swats." The vice principal added that he had no idea about the same gender swatting, Jorgensen said

I'm wondering how he knows what this girl's bottom looks like after it's been hit? I guess he is the VICE principal

[loCAtek]

There's absolutely no indication or allegation that there was anything untoward here...

But I have to say the whole idea of "spanking" high school aged kids as a form of discipline, strikes me as a little odd....

Yea, I got paddling as a kid, can't say by that age it really made a difference. Honestly what went through my mind, and what was probably going through this student's was-
'BFD let's just get this over with'

A red bottom is no great shakes, if there had been bruising however...

[Gob]

Sounds like the script for a bad porno.

[Econoline]

Because of the force with with Santos was struck, her bottom was fire-engine red and looked as if it had been "burned and blistered," said Jorgensen, who took photos as evidence.

And these photos haven't turned up on the internet yet?????

[Joe Guy]

Here's the twist; If the rest of this country is anything like California, school teachers (and principals) are mandated reporters for suspected child abuse. If that principal were to discover that type of injury to a child, he would have been required to report it to Child Protective Services and the parents would be investigated - and very likely the child would be removed from the home for at least a day or two.

Unless a law is broken and legal process has been carried out, it's wrong for anyone other than a parent to administer any type of punishment to a child, in my opinion.

Why would any parents agree to allow a school official or anyone else to hit their child for any reason?

[Gob]

Any school official, or anyone else, who hit the Htach, would better ensure they have full medical insurance up to date first.

[dales]

Anyone who dares to harm my kids/grand kids better be prepared to be well-ventilated with lead.

[loCAtek]

Sounds like the script for a bad porno.

Not a bad one, just a S & M one


Don't ask me how I know that.

[oldr_n_wsr]

I got paddled by a female teacher back in grammar school. Miss Santorie. No fantasy there, but Miss Murphy, now she could have spanked me any time.

[dales]

IN CA public school (c.1958) I got a few good swats from Mrs. Gillis.

[Lord Jim]

IN CA public school (c.1958) I got a few good swats from Mrs. Gillis.

Dobie's mother?

[dales]

She was older.

A wonderful teacher who loved her job.

(in spite of having a little basturd like me in her class)

[oldr_n_wsr]

Little bastards deserve what they get.