Backassward Thinking in the South

from NPR (WUNC):
N.C. Senate OK's Paddling in Schools

Thursday, June 25 2009 by Laura Leslie |

State Senate lawmakers defeated a measure that would have required parental consent for paddling. Under the proposal, schools that use corporal punishment would have had to ask parents for permission to paddle students. Kids whose parents didn't consent would be disciplined by other means. Supporters said parents should have that choice.

But Republican leader Phil Berger said it would mean the end of paddling for all students. "A teacher is not going to have two students that do the same thing and discipline one of them with corporal punishment and not the other," says Berger. "It just won't happen."

The original bill would have also required the fifty-five districts that still use corporal punishment to keep data on whom they paddle and why. The State House approved the measure, but the Senate voted it down by a slim margin.

"In North Carolina, paddling is banned in the largest cities, like Charlotte. It remains legal in 70 percent of the state’s districts, although since they tend to be small and rural, fewer than half of the state’s students are covered." from this New York Times Article.