Letter to district director regarding abolishment of corporal punishment
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Dear Governors and Chief State School Officers:
As Governors and Chief State School Officers, you know that public schools are crucial places for nurturing the unique gifts of all children and developing the knowledge and skills they need to grow and thrive in our democracy, and I appreciate the work you are doing — from early learning to postsecondary education — to support our schools in this mission. To fulfill this mission of promoting the positive development of our youth, a school must first ensure that no harm occurs to the children and young people entrusted into its care. It is for this reason that I write to you, to call your attention to a practice in some schools — the use of corporal punishment[ 1 ] — which is harmful, ineffective, and often disproportionately applied to students of color and students with disabilities, and which states have the power to change.
If you have not already, I urge you to eliminate this practice from your schools, and instead promote supportive, effective disciplinary measures.[ 2 ] Many of you, and your districts and educators, are leading the way in terms of rethinking how to create positive school climates and improve discipline practices in your schools, and eliminating corporal punishment is a critical piece of that work.[ 3 ]The use of corporal punishment can hinder the creation of a positive school climate by focusing on punitive measures to address student misbehavior rather than positive behavioral interventions and supports. Corporal punishment also teaches students that physical force is an acceptable means of solving problems, undermining efforts to promote nonviolent techniques for conflict resolution.
In-school corporal punishment generally entails school personnel intentionally inflicting pain on a child as a punishment or in an attempt to change the child's behavior.[ 4 ]As the accompanying map shows,[ 5 ]today, 22 states[ 6 ] allow the use of corporal punishment in their schools as a means to punish students or to otherwise influence student behavior.[ 7 ] Notably, the very acts of corporal punishment that are permissible when applied to children in schools under some state laws would be prohibited as criminal assault or battery when applied to adults in the community in those very same states.
States should also be aware that in-school corporal punishment is often not applied equally to all students. Rather, the use of in-school corporal punishment tends to be associated with characteristics such as a child’s race, national origin, sex, and/or disability status. Significantly, such disparities can raise concerns of unlawful race, national origin, sex, or disability discrimination under federal law, although statistics alone would not end an inquiry. According to the Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), over 110,000 students were subject to corporal punishment in school during the 2013-2014 academic year.[ 8 ] Yet in-school corporal punishment and its related harm disproportionately impact students of color. Based on the 2013-2014 CRDC, approximately 40,000 — or more than one-third — of those students who were subjected to corporal punishment are black; black students, by comparison, make up only 16 percent of the total public school student population.[ 9 ]Similarly, in states where students were subjected to corporal punishment, black boys were 1.8 times as likely as white boys to be subject to corporal punishment, and black girls were 2.9 times as likely as white girls to be subject to corporal punishment.[ 10 ]Disparities in the use of in-school corporal punishment are not limited to race; boys and students with disabilities experience higher rates of corporal punishment. Based on the 2013-2014 CRDC, boys represented about 80 percent of all students experiencing corporal punishment.[ 11 ]Similarly, in nearly all of the states where the practice is permitted, students with disabilities were subjected to corporal punishment at higher rates than students without disabilities.[ 12 ] These data and disparities shock the conscience.