It’s hard to imagine this will go anywhere, not with most of a Senate filibuster in the part of the country most likely to be opposed.
But Randy Cox of Little Rock, a social worker who’s been a tireless advocate for ending corporal punishment in schools, has sent Democratic U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s news release about her bill to end the practice nationwide. Thirty states (not Arkansas) have already done so.
Corporal punishment has a negative effect on students. It’s discriminatorily applied. It teaches children that violence is an effective problem solver — and, paradoxically, it is favored the older a child gets and the less likely he or she is to be influenced.
The legislation would work by denying federal money to schools that continued corporal punishment. The National PTA and the National Association of Secondary School Principals are among the supporters of the legislation.
Arkansas is a leader in whipping kids, even though the state’s largest school districts have ended the practice.
Almost 40 percent of all the cases of corporal punishment occur in districts in Texas (though not Houston) and Mississippi. Those states, along with Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia, account for almost three-quarters of all the children receiving corporal punishment.
Who in Congress will step up to defend the violence? the Post blogger asks. Good starting place, I’d bet: The NRA-approved lawmakers.