Physical punishment is given to students in various places all over the country practice is very undesirable write a letter to the editor of the national daily expressing your concern on the issue and stop such practices
Answers
I. Summary and Key Recommendations
April 15, 2010
“Corporal Punishment in Schools and Its Effect on Academic Success” Joint HRW/ACLU Statement
For the Hearing Before the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities
On August 18, 2003, 10-year-old Tim L. started the fifth grade at his public elementary school in rural east Texas. On the fourth day of school, Tim refused to run in gym class because he did not have his asthma medication. When the gym coach confronted him, Tim said, "coach sucks." The coach then took a wooden paddle and beat Tim severely on the buttocks. Faye L., Tim's mother, reported, "There was blood in his underpants…. I had to pull the underwear off his behind from the dried blood."[1]
Though Tim had always been an enthusiastic student, he begged his mother not to make him get on the school bus the next day. Three days later, with his bruises still fresh, Tim was hit again, this time by a teacher, for playing with a pen during band class. His genitals were bruised and swollen. With her son physically injured and terrified of school, Faye decided she could not risk sending him back. She began to teach him herself, at home.
Faye wanted school authorities to hold the teachers accountable. They reminded her, however, that corporal punishment is legal in their district, and refused to take disciplinary action against the two teachers who had hit her son. When she tried to file assault charges, the police dissuaded her, saying she had to "follow school procedure." Next, she attempted to pursue private litigation, but her claims were dismissed in court because the law provides immunity for teachers who paddle.
Faye was left feeling that she had no way to seek justice for the injuries her son had already sustained, and no way to protect him from future harm. Though Tim asked to go back to school, Faye felt she could not offer him a guarantee of safety in their public school district. "The law is supposed to be there to protect you. How do you explain this to your son, after this? 'Well, I'm sorry, honey.' That's all you can say."