# Do any US schools still administer corporal punishment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677 "2005-12-21T20:11:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/1 "2005-12-21T20:11:25Z")
The national trend has been to ban this practice. But I’m guessing it’s still practiced in some school districts. By corporal punishment, I’m referring to paddling or otherwise striking a student. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/2 "2005-12-21T20:22:15Z")
Yes. From [here](http://www.window.state.tx.us/tspr/austin/chapt12a.htm) about the Austin ISD: > [@](#): > > The administrator has several options when disciplining students at the campus level. Examples include parent-teacher conferences, counseling, detention, **corporal punishment** , placement in an alternative education program, and expulsion. AISD’s due-process hearing for removing students from regular campuses begins with a campus-level conference to inform parents of the charges against the student and possible consequences. Parents and students are provided the opportunity to respond to the charges. The process allows administrators to consider and determine the appropriate disciplinary actions, which may include a district-level hearing at which alternative placement or expulsion may be recommended. Bolding is mine. Here is another site about [corporal punishment around the world](http://www.corpun.com/). ---
**Author:** ![dietmountaindewster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb9ed0/32.png) [@dietmountaindewster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dietmountaindewster)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/3 "2005-12-22T09:15:20Z")
My high school did as of a few years ago so I imagine it still does. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/4 "2005-12-22T12:26:17Z")
I graduated high school in 1991 in rural northwestern Louisiana. It was still going strong then and I don’t think anyone would change it barring some kind of state law or major lawsuit. It had virtually no opposition from parents or students. In fact, it was the preferred punishment when the student had a choice between being paddled or getting detention or suspension. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/5 "2005-12-22T12:46:54Z")
[Jasper] Talkin’ out of turn, that’s a paddlin’. Lookin’ out the window, that’s a paddlin’. Staring at my sandals, that’s a paddlin’. Paddlin’ the school canoe, oh you’d better believe that’s a paddlin’. [/Jasper] ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/6 "2005-12-22T15:10:18Z")
I believe the **Joan Crawford Memorial Grade School** still administers corporal punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/7 "2005-12-22T18:28:20Z")
answer: [http://www.stophitting.com/disatschool/statesBanning.php](http://www.stophitting.com/disatschool/statesBanning.php) ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/8 "2005-12-22T18:34:33Z")
Good grief. Mississippi in 2002-2003 allowed the hitting of 45,197 students, totalling 9.1 percent on all students–a rate roughly 90 TIMES higher than that of Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas and a good two dozen other states. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/9 "2005-12-22T23:33:03Z")
IIRC, the high school I graduated from a few years ago allowed corporal punishment with prior parental consent, but only the Principal or Vice Principal could do it, and there had to be a witness to ensure nothing untoward happened. Also, I think it had to be a fully-clothed paddling. This was in a fairly highly-rated high school in a decent sized town just outside of Dallas. For the most part, a lot of the teachers had paddles that they used as hall passes for when students needed to use the bathroom. Never heard of anyone actually getting corporal’d. The JROTC detatchment at the school did issue punitive PT for certain offenses though (mostly just for misconstruing gender, IOW, if you called a Ma’am Sir or vice versa, then you had to do pushups or butterfly kicks.) ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-us-schools-still-administer-corporal-punishment/336677/10 "2005-12-23T02:28:59Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Good grief. > > Mississippi in 2002-2003 allowed the hitting of 45,197 students, totalling 9.1 percent on all students–a rate roughly 90 TIMES higher than that of Arizona, Colorado, and Kansas and a good two dozen other states. I went to school (7th through 10th grade, before my family moved) in Mississipi not that long ago (I am 22 now.) Assuming kids in 2002-03 acted the same as those from a couple years prior, that is not nearly enough corporal punishment - at least a third of the school population was in need of a good beating, from what I saw.