BCT Editorial – 8/22/08

This page was last updated on August 23, 2008.

Out of place; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 22, 2008.

The editorial subtitle is “There’s no good reason for corporal punishment in American schools.”

Since the editorial leads off equating swats with bullying and other forms of violence in schools, you can tell where the editorial is headed.

While not a fixture in the principal’s office by any stretch of the imagination, I can testify the couple of times I got swats didn’t traumatize me.

Let’s look at the “data” the editorial used to support its position. The editorial says, “The news service reported African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found. Want more? In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls, and boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.”

Let’s look at the claim for black students. Doesn’t this reflect what we see in the adult population? The crime rate for blacks is higher than for whites and this is reflected in our prison populations. Are we to believe these adult criminals were well behaved in school?

Regarding the comment that “boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls,” no kidding Sherlock. While girls aren’t angels, as a group boys always have and likely always will get into more trouble than girls. The more you often get into trouble, the more often you will be punished.

Did you note the question the editorial didn’t even acknowledge? That’s right, the editorial didn’t even mention effectiveness. Is reasonable corporal punishment an effective deterrent? I don’t know, but isn’t that the question that should have been addressed?