Corpun file 24462 at www.corpun.com
The Decatur Daily, Alabama, 8 May 2013
City to keep paddlings
Superintendent: System to continue review of corporal punishment
By Deangelo McDaniel
The Decatur Daily
(extracts)
Decatur City Schools is backing away from a plan to ban corporal punishment, but will require administrators to paddle with "extreme care, tact and caution."
The board may revise its corporal punishment policy at a later date to define specific things, such as how many times a student may be struck and how parents may request that their children not be paddled, Superintendent Ed Nichols said at Tuesday's school board meeting.
Nichols said the board wants to "do a little more studying" before permanently removing corporal punishment from the student code of conduct.
"We're going to hold things in place next (school) year," he said. "In most cases when it's been used, parents have requested it. I'd much rather allow parents have a say than to take away that option."
None of the board members challenged the decision to retain corporal punishment as a discipline option.
"I will leave that decision up to the professionals who have studied the issue," board President Karen Duke said.
"I agree with her," board member Dwight Jett Jr. said.
[...]
School Safety Supervisor Dwight Satterfield and a group of administrators recommended last month that Decatur stop what he called "a very controversial practice" that some principals feel uncomfortable doing.
He said a small revision to the policy will state that the board believes the corporal punishment "should be seldom used."
Alabama is one of 19 states that permit corporal punishment, although some school systems, such as Huntsville City, have banned the practice.
Satterfield said paddlings in Decatur schools have declined from 12 for defiance of authority in 2008 to only eight in the past four years.
State law requires school systems that allow corporal punishment to have procedures in place.
Decatur's policy is one of the most stringent: Administrators are allowed to paddle only after other methods of discipline have failed. The policy requires a conference with the student's parents or guardian, and the student has to be given an opportunity to defend charges before being paddled. Only the principal or a designee of the principal can paddle, and at least two certified employees must be present, Satterfield said.
[...]
"We're going to continue to look at this, but we want to make sure parents have a voice in what's developed," Nichols said.
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Corpun file 24470 at www.corpun.com
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 17 May 2013
[12 members of St. Helena High's Class of 2013 to retake GEE]
Corporal punishment:
By Heidi R. Kinchen
Florida Parishes bureau
(extracts)
GREENSBURG -- The St. Helena Parish School Board agreed Thursday to allow 12 seniors who met all course and grade requirements for graduation but did not pass a standardized test to participate in a May 17 graduation ceremony.
[...]
Other business coming before the School Board included:
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: The board removed from the district's manual a policy permitting corporal punishment of students and replaced it with a policy expressly forbidding the practice.
[Superintendent Kelli] Joseph, who requested the change, said her administration does not condone the use of corporal punishment and cannot support a policy that allows it.
[...]
