Domestic CP

-- Australia: "Smack Happy".

Short TV news item (September 2006) on a controversy over whether parental CP ("smacking") should be outlawed in Australia.

-- Canada: TV news item (April 2007) about a local school board that is offering parents lessons in how to spank their children.

A posed reconstruction of a child being spanked is shown over a telephone interview in French with a psychologist who has helped devise the spanking lessons for parents.

-- Canada: TV news item on legal battles over parental CP.

Clip (June 2003) shows parents spanking small children, interviews with a Christian father who spanks, lawyers, and activists, as anti-CP agitators take their case to Canadian Supreme Court.

-- United States: Proposal to ban spanking in Massachusetts.

Three TV news films giving CBS, ABC and Fox takes on a bill (which failed) in Massachusetts that would have outlawed parental corporal punishment in the home. Various parents spanking their bratty toddlers are briefly shown.

-- United States: Court upholds parental spanking.

TV news report on a decision by the Indiana Supreme Court (June 2008) that corporal punishment by parents is lawful, even if it leaves bruises.

-- United States: Spanking controversy.

10-minute news report from Florida about a man who is in trouble for spanking his 8-year-old son with a belt. Includes interview with the man and his lawyer.

-- United States: Free paddles for parents.

Two rival TV news items on Joey Salvati of Pennsylvania, who, in obedience to a message from God, makes paddles and sends them free to parents who wish to discipline their kids.

-- United States: TV news item on controversy over woman who came into classroom and whipped her nephew (Feb 2007).

The clip includes interviews with a mother whose daughter saw the spanking and with a school district spokesman.

-- United States: "Would you whoop your kids?"

Light-hearted interviews on American street with people of differing ethnic backgrounds and views on parental spanking.

Fun/Fraternity/Folklore CP

-- Argentina: Taekwondo belting.

A youngster gets a whacking from his taekwondo teammates to celebrate winning his black belt.

-- Poland: 18th birthday spanking.

A college boy gets 18 whacks with a belt on the seat of his jeans.

-- Mexico: Initiation paddling at air training school.

A man gets whacked with a hefty paddle in an aircraft hangar as his mates look on with amusement.

-- Russia: Initiation spankings for army recruits.

From a TV documentary about the Russian army. Rookie soldiers get a taste of the belt from their mates.

-- United States: "Mikey Getting Paddled".

A jocular birthday paddling in a classroom, date and location unknown. The implement used might be the school's real paddle.

-- United States: Two spanking machines. Part of our feature The Spanking Machine: A Resilient Myth in Popular Culture.

(1) An inventor demonstrates his experimental spanking machine on himself.
(2) Self-operated paddling device made out of an exercise bicycle.

Illicit CP

--Various countries - 5 clips

Five scenes of extrajudicial (i.e. illegal or "unofficial") corporal punishment in Mexico, Iraq, Pakistan and Venezuela. Not for the squeamish.

-- India: News item (2007): two youths get unofficial flogging by police in an Indian city street.

-- Mexico: Unofficial paddling at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.

-- South Africa: An unofficial judicial whipping of alleged teenage rapists by vigilantes, filmed in 1999.

-- United States: Vigilante gang charged with brutal spanking of alleged forger.

Very brief TV news report (Sep 2008) includes a glimpse of the accused in custody at a preliminary hearing.

-- United States: Workplace spanking.

TV news report (Jan 2008) on a case in which a woman had been spanked at work. A court awarded her compensation, but this was overturned on appeal.

-- United States: Judge accused of paddling inmates.

TV news item (Sep 2007) about allegations that a judge in Alabama removed young men from prison and paddled them in his office. The NAACP says it is all a conspiracy against the judge.

-- United States: More on Judge Thomas.

A March 2009 follow-up to the previous item. The judge is barred from practising as a lawyer.

-- United States: Another follow-up on ex-judge Thomas (April 2009).

The Alabama State Bar finds evidence that he is a "sexual predator" but on camera he denies everything.

Judicial CP

-- Afghanistan: Woman flogged.

This 10-second video clip gives a fleeting glimpse of an impromptu flogging by the Taliban of a (mostly hidden from view) woman in a Kabul street, 2001.

-- Ecuador: Various offenders (men and women) whipped in public tribal punishment.

-- Guatemala: Several young men whipped on the bare back in a community punishment ceremony.

-- Guatemala: TV news clip shows four youths aged 18-20 receiving a public whipping from their elders on the orders of the local tribal court.

-- Hong Kong: Demonstration in the prison museum of the A-frame and cane formerly used for judicial CP.

-- Indonesia: 2 video clips of public canings in Aceh province.

(1) A man and a woman are each given 7 strokes together in 2007. This gives a much clearer picture of the procedure than previous clips.
(2) An earlier and less clear film from local TV in which a man and a woman are punished.

-- Iran: Three video clips of public floggings.

(1) A man gets 80 lashes with a whip while tied to a tree.
(2) A poor-quality video of a man receiving about 40 lashes as he is held facing a wall.
(3) An offender is caned in public while lying flat on a bench, date unknown.

-- Jersey: 53 years after being birched as a teenage criminal, an old man is interviewed about it. We also see the contraption used, still in storage after lying idle for 40 years.

-- Malaysia: Real JCP session.

A 22-minute film showing several genuine judicial canings in prison. Very graphic - not suitable for squeamish viewers.

-- Malaysia: Another prison caning.

4-minute graphic footage of a different real-life Malaysian judicial caning. This is the full-length version of a 10-stroke caning for which we previously had only an "edited highlights" version.

-- Malaysia: Furore over caning sentence on woman.

3-minute TV report (Aug 2009) gives background to the case of the woman sentenced to Sharia caning for drinking beer. Includes an interview with her.

-- Nigeria: Judicial whippings.

Two 4-minute extracts from a documentary about Sharia law in Zamfara state, Nigeria. A number of court-ordered whippings are shown being administered.

-- Pakistan: Two public floggings, about 30 years apart.

(1) A brief silent glimpse of an official caning in front of a crowd of thousands under the Zia regime, c.1980.
(2) Two drug dealers flogged by the Taliban in 2009 in Swat.

-- Pakistan: Young woman receives public flogging from Taliban.

An unofficial flogging in the Swat Valley makes international headlines in April 2009.

-- Saudi Arabia: A public whipping.

A video clip of Saudi JCP comes to hand for the first time.

-- Singapore: "Rapist gets 28 years jail and 24 strokes".

Video report from the scene of the crime, April 2007.

-- Singapore: Staged reconstruction of a judicial caning in prison, from an official government film.

-- Singapore: Two videos on the "AWOL soldier with gun" affair.

(1) September 2007: National serviceman Dave Teo, 20, is arrested with an accomplice.
(2) July 2008: Teo is convicted and sentenced to jail plus 18 strokes of the cane. TV report gives background to the case.

-- United States: Two news clips (June 2008) about a Texas judge who offers parents the option of paddling their youngsters in his courtroom.

Military CP

-- Malaysia: Unofficial caning.

Members of a commando unit in the Malaysian army get an unofficial on-the-spot caning in front of their comrades.

-- United Kingdom: Unofficial slippering for an army lad.

A present-day British soldier is "sentenced" by his mates to a pants-down slippering. It is a light-hearted affair, but a real punishment none the less.

-- United Kingdom: Short item from cinema newsreel, 1948.

The clip relates to a supposed 'controversy' about caning for teenage soldiers at army apprentice school. Also another brief clip, evidently from out-takes (filmed for the same item but not used), of army lads discussing the choice between taking a caning and being confined to barracks.

-- United Kingdom: A man describes getting the cane in the 1930s on a naval training ship.

School CP

-- Various countries: Five video clips of jocular class spankings.

-- Australia: Segment (June 2007) from a factual TV programme for children about suggestions that school CP should be brought back.

-- Australia: TV feature compares past and present treatment of schoolboy misbehaviour.

-- Australia: Cricket legend Shane Warne describes being caned at school in the 1980s.

-- Africa (country unknown): A schoolboy receives "six of the best".

-- China (?): Mass school caning.

Five boys each receive four strokes on the backside in front of their class.

-- Ecuador: Two senior students get strapped on the backside in class.

-- Iraq: Senior school students strapped on the hands

In a classroom somewhere in Iraq, several pupils are made to hold out their hands to be punished by their teacher with what looks like a small rubber strap.

-- Kenya: Mass outdoor punishment of school students.

-- Malaysia: Two brief clips showing real-life school canings.

-- New Zealand: TV news item (2006) about a Christian school defying the legal ban on corporal punishment.

-- New Zealand: TV news item (2007) about another Christian school, which gets round the ban on corporal punishment by having parents come to the school to administer a paddling.

-- Pakistan: Mass schoolboy canings.

(1) Secondary students in uniform are lined up at a college in Rawalpindi to receive one stroke of the cane each.
(2) Several students are seen being punished in a schoolyard in Azad Kashmir, under Pakistani rule.

-- Singapore: Real-life footage of three formal, English-style school caning sessions.

(1) Five young lads get a stroke of the cane each for fighting.
(2) An upper secondary student receives two hard strokes of the cane in front of his class.
(3) An upper secondary boy bends over on stage to be disciplined in front of the whole school.

-- South Korea: Three real-life clips of schoolboys receiving school discipline on the seat of their trousers.

(1) Two secondary boys are briskly caned in a school corridor.
(2) A boy faces the blackboard to be punished with what looks like a ruler.
(3) Four senior students bend over the desk for a severe caning.

-- South Korea: "Stick of love" ceremony at a boys' high school.

TV news report (in Korean) shows students presenting their teachers with gifts of punishment canes, sent by their parents to help keep them in line.

-- South Korea: Silent clip from a mobile phone of a schoolboy being whacked in fun.

-- South Korea: Six real-life clips of schoolgirls being caned or paddled on their bottoms.

(1) Three girls are summoned in turn to the front of the class for a caning.
(2) Four students paddled by their lady teacher at the front of the class.
(3) About a dozen girls are caned in a schoolyard.
(4) A female high school student receives five strokes of the cane in front of her class.
(5) Two younger girls are given light-hearted taps with a cane.
(6) TV news item (in Korean) includes real-life footage of a mass whacking of schoolgirls across the seat of their skirts. This one is serious and not in fun at all.

-- Taiwan: A student is paddled in front of his class at a junior high school, 2005, captured on a videophone.

-- Taiwan: A student is punished on the hands in class.

-- Thailand: Jocular punishment in which schoolboys are made to cane each other in front of their class.

-- Thailand: 8 senior boys are caned in front of class at Bangkok Christian College.

-- Thailand: Schoolboy canings - two video clips.

(1) Two boys at a Christian school receive one stroke of the cane each.
(2) A caning is glimpsed through a classroom window.

-- Thailand: Two clips of mass classroom punishments.

(1) Half a dozen schoolgirls are caned on their buttocks.
(2) A number of students get the ruler on the hand.

-- United Kingdom: Bring back the cane?

5-minute BBC feature (October 2008) discusses the implications of a survey which found that 20% of British teachers would still like to have corporal punishment brought back in schools.

-- United Kingdom: Bring back the cane.

Segment from a daytime TV chat show (March 2007) discussing a survey which found that many parents would like to see corporal punishment reintroduced in schools.

-- United Kingdom: TV Nation (1994).

Michael Moore has a fine old time sending up the Brits and their penchant for corporal punishment. See those School Dinners whackings in full! Comedy at its best!

-- United Kingdom: Lord Lichfield visits his old school, Harrow, and reminisces about canings there.

-- United Kingdom: Brief excerpt from a 1950s TV item about school caning.

-- United Kingdom: Parts 1 and 2 of a 1990s TV item in which a caning headmaster, and three caned boys, are interviewed.

-- United Kingdom: TV news report, 2002: The Court of Appeal rejects a Christian school's claim that the ban on CP is a contravention of human rights.

-- United Kingdom: 25 years without the Scottish school tawse.

BBC TV news report (2007) in which present-day students are shown how the belt was administered, 25 years after it disappeared from Scottish state schools.

-- United Kingdom: 1982 TV news item about European Court of Human Rights ruling in the Scottish tawse case.

Clip shows tawse being made, staged shots of tawse in use, report on implications of court judgment for CP in UK schools.

-- United Kingdom: TV news report, 2006: The Scottish school belt (tawse) rests in the museum; a local politician calls for it to be brought back.

-- United States: Real school paddlings caught on camera.

Five clips of real-life American school paddlings under way.

(1) A student gets a hard one-swat paddling from coach in the locker room.
(2) Somewhere in the South, a high school boy chooses a paddle swat instead of referral for skipping class.
(3) A student receives five moderate licks with the paddle in a Mississippi high school hallway.
(4) In a jocular atmosphere in a Texas high school classroom, a sports coach administers one paddle swat.
(5) A very brief glimpse of a hard paddling being administered at a private Catholic boys' high school in Louisiana.

-- United States: Corporal punishment in Alabama.

A new report notes that paddlings are high in Alabama. A local TV report (Aug 2009) finds differing opinions, and interviews a school superintendent who says many parents support CP.

-- United States: Two TV news reports on an attempt to abolish school CP in Louisiana, June 2009.

(1) State Rep. Barbara Norton introduces House Bill 571.
(2) The Bill is defeated in committee.

-- United States: Corporal punishment in a Florida school district, June 2009.

While one Florida district decides to abandon the paddle, a news TV crew visits another district where CP is still used, but only at elementary level and only by parental request.

-- United States: Two TV news reports tied to archive news for May 2009.

(1) Temple ISD in Texas reintroduces school paddling.
(2) In another Texas district, a paddled boy's mother complains about bruises on her son's bottom. The boy describes his punishment.

-- United States: Three TV news reports tied to archive news for March 2009.

(1) A brief report on paddling in Oklahoma.
(2) A state representative in Louisiana is seeking to get school corporal punishment abolished in that state. Not everyone agrees.
(3) Anti-CP agitators try to stir up controversy outside a Memphis charter school that paddles, but parents who support the school's policy mount a counter-demonstration.

-- United States: Two TV news reports tied to archive news for Feb 2009.

(1) Governor of Ohio proposes school paddling ban.
(2) A charter school in Memphis is under fire for its "public paddling" policy.

-- United States: TV news report, Dec 2008: Corporal punishment is abolished in Columbia County, Georgia.

-- United States: TV news report, Nov 2008: A Texas woman complains about her son's paddling at school, even though she gave permission for it.

-- United States: TV news report, Oct 2008: Corporal punishment is illegal in Chicago schools, but it turns out that sports coaches at several schools there have been paddling students. There is a brief and distant glimpse of a paddling caught on security camera.

-- United States: A follow-up report (Dec 2008) on the above. Two coaches are fired for illegal paddling in Chicago schools.

-- United States: Paddling news from Missouri. Two TV news items from September 2008.

(1) Report on paddling policies in the north-east of the state, after a mother moves there from a non-paddling state and is shocked to discover that CP is on the books.
(2) A principal in another part of Missouri is found to have done no wrong in administering a paddling about which the student's mother complained.

-- United States: Seven TV news clips about school paddling.

These 7 excerpts from news shows on various US TV channels (in Arkansas, Kentucky, N. Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas) all come from August 2008. They relate to various decisions to abolish or extend school CP and, in particular, use the publication of an anti-CP ACLU/Human Rights Watch report as a peg on which to hang coverage of CP practice in their area. Two clips include interviews with paddled students. Scroll down the page to find each clip in its context.

-- United States: Three excerpts from a TV documentary about a paddling school in Arkansas.

From a "fly-on-the-wall" TV series (Aug 2008) about schools and their principals, these clips show the process whereby errant students at an Arkansas high school may opt for a paddling in lieu of Saturday school. Two such punishments are heard on the soundtrack from inside the principal's office -- one paddling of a boy and one of a girl. The students who received them, and the principal, are interviewed.

-- United States: Three TV news reports from April 2008 on parents complaining about school paddlings.

(1) A Tennessee father is angry about his 11-year-old son's paddling at school.
(2) In Missouri, a 15-year-old girl and her mother, and the school superintendent, are interviewed about a paddling which turned out to be harder than the girl was expecting.
(3) A mother in Texas is up in arms about the severity with which, she says, her 17-year-old son was paddled at school.

-- United States: North Carolina mother complains about paddling (2 clips).

(1) TV news item from Jan 2008 about the paddling of a student. His mother had given permission for the punishment, but then complained when it left marks on his rear. An investigation found there had been no abuse or wrongdoing on the part of the school.
(2) Another TV report about the same case.

-- United States: Proposal to ban CP in Ohio schools.

Two short TV news reports (Dec 2007) on a move by Ohio legislators to outlaw school paddling.

-- United States: More on proposed Ohio CP ban.

A further TV news report (Jan 2008) on the above, including an interview with a high school principal who uses the paddle.

-- United States: Paddling controversy.

News report (Dec 2007) about the paddling of a boy, 11, in a Tennessee middle school. His grandmother had given permission for the punishment, but then complained that the swats were too hard. The district superintendent is interviewed.

-- United States: Middle school mass paddling.

TV news report (September 2007) from Tennessee, where parents have complained that a paddling of about a dozen sixth-graders went too far.

-- United States: Unfair punishment of student.

TV news report (September 2007) from Texas about a schoolboy, 12, who was ineptly and unjustly paddled by his football coach, leaving a bruise on his leg.

-- United States: Interview with a Memphis teacher, May 2007, who says that the abolition of corporal punishment has failed.

-- United States: Follow-up to the above.

June 2007: Memphis school board meeting at which concerns are expressed over the consequences of abolishing CP. Two TV news reports, one before and one after the meeting. A school board member who wants paddling to be brought back is interviewed.

-- United States: Memphis, continued.

A further follow-up to the previous two items. TV news report from Memphis school board town hall meeting in July 2007 over continuing controversy about the Blue Ribbon Plan, which abolished CP. Speakers at the meeting are seen calling for the return of the paddle, and a nubile hackette waves a paddle around for the camera.

-- United States: Yet more from Memphis.

TV news report (August 2007) about another Memphis school board town hall meeting. At this one, not a single speaker from the floor agreed with the Blue Ribbon Plan, under which paddling was abolished.

-- United States: Memphis update, May 2008.

May 2008 and the dispute over CP in Memphis (see previous items) has not gone away. Now the city's Mayor, addressing the school board directly, calls for paddling to be brought back.

-- United States: Members of the public are interviewed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, April 2007, on their views about corporal punishment in school in light of a bill to abolish paddling in the state.

-- United States: TV news report, 2007: Proposal to reintroduce paddling in Conway, Arkansas.

-- United States: Two TV news reports from North Carolina, 2007.

(1) A six-minute report (Nov 2007) includes an interview with a rural principal who believes the paddle is effective, and still uses it regularly.
(2) Two-minute clip (Jan 2007) gives brief overview of CP situation in North Carolina.

-- United States: TV news anchor Shepard Smith describes getting paddled at his private school in the late 1970s.

-- United States: TV news report (2005) on unsuccessful efforts to get school paddling banned in a district of North Carolina.

-- United States: TV report (June 2007) from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A private school is closing down. The principal proposes to auction off his paddle.

-- United States: TV report (August 2007) on a controversy over school discipline in Georgia.

A schoolboy's parents refuse to let his school spank him. The mother is interviewed.

-- United States: Two TV news reports on school paddling cases in 2005.

Both stories, one in Texas and one in North Carolina, feature paddled boys and their complaining mothers.

-- United States: Another TV news report (2006) on a mother complaining about school paddling, even though she had given permission for it.

This case is from Arkansas. The principal was arrested but later cleared of any wrongdoing.

-- United States: Yet another TV news report (2006) featuring a mother unhappy about her son's paddling at school, even though she had given permission for it.

This case is from Tennessee. In addition to the mother, the local Director of Schools is interviewed.

-- United States: "Police: Coach ordered corporal punishment of player".

TV news item from 2006 about allegations that a basketball coach at a high school in Virginia (where CP is banned in public schools) made members of the team take turns to spank one of their number.

-- United States: Three TV news reports (2006) about school paddling. Two are about a mass paddling of boys by the football coach at a middle school in Mississippi. The other is a visit to Texas where a school principal has reinstated CP to general approval, and includes a boy and a girl submitting to demonstration paddlings for the camera.

-- Vietnam: Two video clips of schoolboy canings.