# Is 30 thousand paddlings a year in Memphis schools excessive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 20, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839 "2004-11-20T16:43:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/41 "2004-11-23T06:49:43Z")
I think it’s disgusting. If somebody “paddled” the parents, they would be arrested for battery. We decry the high percentage of domestic violence, but turn a blind eye when children are getting hit? What do you think people learn when they’re hit? They learn that it’s ok to hit somebody else when they need to be “punished” for whatever reason. Somebody stole your toy? Smack them. Somebody got in your way at the grocery store? Smack them. Spouse talks back? Smack them. Kids act like human beings instead of pets? Smack them _a lot_. When my parents “spanked” me I don’t remember thinking “I’ll never do that again” I remember thinking “I hope you fucking die you stupid goddamned motherfucker.” I guarentee that the “sting of embarassment” and a red ass is not going to motivate lazy kids, and it’s certainly not going to help children with behaivoral problems, personal problems, mental problems, or just an old-fashioned rebellious streak. It’ll make the situation worse, and it’ll make the children resent authority. Wouldn’t you resent the person beating you? And you know what, it may not be a _beating_ but that’s how kids could see it. The law protects me from my husband (should he ever dare hit me) and I’m big enough to stand up for myself and fight back, but it’s not a big deal if the smallest, most vulnerable members of our society are assaulted and battered not only at home but at school as well. Disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![mamakat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@mamakat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamakat)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/42 "2004-11-23T07:27:13Z")
My dad was very abusive when I was little. His favorite thing to do? Beat us with a leather belt. Usually about 15 times. Guess what? He was a teacher. If the school he worked at had allowed “paddling”, then the kids would be getting hit for everything. Do I want to take the risk that my kids could get a teacher like my dad if paddling was allowed? HELL NO!!! If a teacher ever paddled my child, I’d go down to the school and kick his ass! (Sorry, this subject is a sore spot for me! :mad: ) ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/43 "2004-11-23T10:19:58Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra So glee, it is working. I’m sure the teachers handing out the punishment feel great after wacking those bad kids. They have no intention of trying to change their behavior with paddling. It is just to cause pain in bad kid and relive their stress.[/QUOTE] Someone needs to kick the shit out of those people…not to teach them anything, just so we can watch them suffer. ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/44 "2004-11-23T14:42:19Z")
Are some of you seriously relating childhood spanking to domestic violence? Come on! If you see Daddy hitting Mommy that can make the impression that this is an acceptable practice. Being spanked is an immediate; slightly painful and embarrassing punishment and you have to be willing to risk it if you are going to do something that you know will warrant a spanking. If the paddle isn’t the way to get through to that particular child, then it’s not appropriate. Find something else. Take them off the sports team that they like. Separate them from their classmates. For some people (me) spanking worked as a punishment and a deterrent. As for parents knowing what’s best for kids, that’s just crap. How many parents really know their kids at all in this day and age? Parents work, come home and are exhausted. They don’t spend nearly as much time with a kid as a teacher or principle does. I don’t know that teachers should be allowed to paddle kids, but I think that a principle should be able to. Someone that is more accountable and can be held more responsible than a diffuse group of teachers. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/45 "2004-11-23T15:51:33Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > I don’t know that teachers should be allowed to paddle kids, but I think that a **principle** should be able to. Spelling error. That’s a paddling. Hope you learned your lesson. I think the coach in the article linked in the OP is a psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/46 "2004-11-23T19:12:10Z")
> [@](#): > > Reggie Tate, whose son plays on the team, worried that his son would drift into delinquency without [former coach] Anderson’s firm hand. When the new coach called Tate with a minor complaint about his son, asking Tate to address the problem, Tate scoffed at the coach for not handling it himself: “Call me if he cuts somebody’s head off,” he said. “That was something too simple for a man to call another man.” This isn’t the Pit, so I’ll do my best to temper my reply, but this really, really, REALLY pisses me off. This moron is supposedly worried that his kid will become delinquent if his teacher/coach is no longer allowed to physically assault him, yet wants nothing whatsoever to do with disciplining his own child until his behaviour becomes so egregious as to cause the kid to dismember another human being. _That’s_ a “big enough” problem to bother him with; short of that, leave him the hell out of it. His kid drifting into delinquency is the teacher’s responsibility to control, not his. Unfuckingbelievable. I’m just disgusted by these animals. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/47 "2004-11-24T04:01:35Z")
Damn. I went to _Catholic_ school, and I think I was swatted maybe three times, very lightly. None of which hurt. And by the time I was in 8th grade, it was pretty much forbidden. Discipline was pretty strict there, too. I remember my first grade teacher, a tiny little nun in her seventies who had taught my father when he was young. She didn’t HAVE to paddle us, or even yell. All she had to was look at you and shake her head, looking angry, sad and disappointed. That was enough. You immediately felt like shit, because you let Sr. Frances down. She was the most beloved teacher in our school, as well. Kids will behave if you make it clear you expect it of them. If you have to cause physical pain to stop it, then you’ve let things go way too far. And **My Darn Snake Legs** (cool name, btw!), a spanking is one thing-it’s a light swat on the fanny. A paddling with a wooden paddle, however, can cause serious harm-bruising, bleeding, contusions, etc. A flat, wooden paddle will create a lot of momentum when you whack someone with it-that fucking HURTS. What if you have a child with a medical condition that prevents him or her from being paddled? The article noted that parents aren’t allowed to opt out for their children. And it disgusts me that those who are defending this are calling it a part of “African American culture” (the article, not anyone on the Dope). Hello? You’re beating these kids like the slaves were beaten on the plantations, and that’s a GOOD thing? Jesus Christ! ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/48 "2004-11-24T04:22:46Z")
Well talk about a timed thread – Memphis **ends corporal punishment after 35 years.** > [@](#): > > **…Monday night, by a vote of five to four, the Memphis City School Board voted to abolish corporal punishment in the district. > Commissioner Lora Jobe sponsored the resolution that brings the 35-year practice to an end….** [http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=2603301](http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=2603301) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/49 "2004-11-24T06:45:08Z")
> [@Tigers2B1](#): > > Well talk about a timed thread – Memphis **ends corporal punishment after 35 years.** Those poor children. Is anybody having as much trouble as I am understanding the following? _School Board Member Wanda Halbert supports paddling. “To deny me, to deny my voice, to deny my right, is a violation of me…and my child.” she said._ So preventing the school the right to paddle her child is denying her and her child’s rights? What the hell? ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/50 "2004-11-24T11:18:21Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > . > > And **My Darn Snake Legs** (cool name, btw!), a spanking is one thing-it’s a light swat on the fanny. May I just say to all Brits… no this isn’t what you’re thinking it is… ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/51 "2004-11-24T16:33:10Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > And **My Darn Snake Legs** (cool name, btw!), a spanking is one thing-it’s a light swat on the fanny. A paddling with a wooden paddle, however, can cause serious harm-bruising, bleeding, contusions, etc. A flat, wooden paddle will create a lot of momentum when you whack someone with it-that fucking HURTS. > What if you have a child with a medical condition that prevents him or her from being paddled? The article noted that parents aren’t allowed to opt out for their children. If this is what is going on, then I am against it. From reading the article though, I don’t remember anything being said about injuries like contusions and bleeding. They did describe the paddle as kinda scary looking, but I think that if there had been injuries sustained it would have been included in the article. When I was paddled the adult didn’t just haul off and start beating me as hard as he could. It was not injurious, I never had a bruise and the redness and stinging never lasted through the day. I’d think that this is the case here as well. Instructive paddling is one thing, but if a teacher or administrator ever _bloodied_ my kid I would be irate. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/52 "2004-11-25T05:54:38Z")
> [@Iceland\_Blue](#): > > May I just say to all Brits… no this isn’t what you’re thinking it is… Oh Christ, I didn’t even think of that! Thanks for pointing it out! :smack: 😛 (Psst-“fanny” in the US is one’s buttocks) **My Darn Snake Legs** The article may not have said that kids were coming home with injuries, but a wooden paddle is a wooden paddle, and sometimes people can get carried away, and may not know their own strength. And everyone’s body is different-some people, like myself, bruise rather easily. If someone had swatted me with a paddle like that, my ass would’ve been black and blue, even if you didn’t hit me that hard. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/53 "2004-11-25T06:15:30Z")
> [@Tigers2B1](#): > > Well talk about a timed thread – Memphis \*\*ends corporal punishment after 35 years. I applaud this decision. Corporal punishment is a barbaric practice and has no place in our schools. It inflicts psychological scars, as well as teaching students that violence is an acceptable means for enforcing policy. IMO, corporal punishment is an absolute last resort, and should only be carried out by the child’s parents. The school principal’s role should not include beating children. I hope more schools follow Memphis’ example and banish this practice. ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839/54 "2004-11-25T07:42:14Z")
I’m in Memphis. The city has ~800,000 people with huge populations in the surrounding areas that might be included in this paddling number. I’m curious of the breakdown of those 30,000 paddles - did 1 student get them all? 30,000 students get 1 paddling each? If I had to flat out guess I’d say at least a couple of thousand kids get spanked a year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-30-thousand-paddlings-a-year-in-memphis-schools-excessive/275839.md?page=2)