HRW and the ACLU recently released a rather informative report on the practice of corporal punishment of children in US public schools. Among other things, the report found that blacks were more likely to get paddled by a large ratio and that the offences for getting punished are relatively minor ones such as "such as chewing gum, talking back to a teacher, or violating the dress code."
Here's an excerpt that stuck out at me:
I had a pregnant girl get paddled once for being tardy. She was five months pregnant. She was 16. The principal paddled her ... she was showing and it was known that she was pregnant. She was part of a group that was tardy to class. And she yelled something along the lines of "you shouldn't paddle me, I’m pregnant."
Of course, the red-blooded God-fearin Muricans at NewsBusters think that school officials paddling children is just fine and dandy:
I guess this is their way of trying to get our support sorry I'm all for the good old fashion @$$ whipping when warranted.
A teacher just don't wake up one morning and say let me go beat on some kids, obviously some of those knuckle heads must have done something stupid to warrant it.
I'm still surprised though to read this, in this day and age of PC gone wild I thought this was abandoned years ago. Glad to see its still in place in some areas.
[...]
Here's a wild thought...maybe they (careful, politically incorrect words to follow) are, just like the disproportionate representation of minorities in prison, are the ones actually committing the transgressions.
...ya' think?
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I have to deal with kids like this one all day long and their rotten parents. Nobody would have to give this jerk an a** beating if he had some discipline at home in the first place.
Spank 'em both.
How much do you want to bet that 99% of these so-called "patriots" bitching about these namby-pamby human rights groups have never read the actual report and never will? The ignorance is stunning. I wonder how they would respond if they found out that their pregnant teenage daughter was spanked by a male principal.
Anyways, please skim through the whole report. It really makes you wonder if these "traditional values" the right always harps on about are really worth preserving in any way shape or form.