People Opposed to Paddling Students or POPS
School Paddling is Legalized Child Abuse
HOME
Paddling cases
Paddling News

Anthony Adams

Founder of DetentionSlip.org

May 5, 2010 

223,190 Kids Legally Beaten in US Schools

For the first time in over 18 years, Congress has held hearings on the use of Corporal Punishment in U.S. Schools. In the coming weeks, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (NY) will introduce a bill to institute a federal ban of corporal punishment in all US Schools. [source: US Congressional Hearing]

Every 20 seconds of the school day, a child is beaten by an educator. Every 4 minutes, an educator beats a child so severely that she seeks medical attention. According to conservative reporting to the U.S. Department of Education 223,190 students were the victims of institutionalized violence at least once in the 2006-2007 school year, of which over 20,000 sought medical attention. [source: Office for Civil Rights at the US Dept. of Education; Congressional Testimony]

Pre-school age through high school, students are being beaten with boards, belts, paddles, and whips... in public schools... in the United States... and while corporal punishment has been repeatedly shown to be ineffective and has deleterious effects on students, the practice continues and is legal in 20 states.

The iron age practice of "corporal punishment" is still legal in 20 states and there are no federal laws prohibiting it. The National Association of School Nurses defines corporal punishment as "the intentional infliction of physical pain as a method of changing behavior. It may include methods such as hitting, slapping, punching, kicking, pinching, shaking, use of various objects (paddles, belts, sticks, or others), or painful body postures."

From infractions as dangerous as forgetting a pencil to prom dress code violations, students are being beaten across the country. All of this, of course is without any due process, court hearing, and often the parents have no say in the matter. Did I mention that corporal punishment is outlawed in the US legal system, and even felons convicted of rape or murder can sleep soundly knowing they will never be subject to the same kinds of beatings we routinely doll out to our children in public schools. Not to mention that 97 out of the 100 largest US School districts have banned corporal punishment. [source: Center for Effective Discipline]

The United States stands alone in the developed world -- Canada, Europe, the UK, Australia and 102 other countries have long since outlawed the practice. [source:] The United Nations, Parent Teacher Association, American Civil Liberties Union, American Association of Pediatrics and countless other organizations have strong positions against the use of corporal punishment. [source:Center for Effective Discipline]


Long time advocate for children, Jimmy Dunne, is interviewed in Houston on Fox TV.  Click on the photo to watch the short video.  Jimmy is wearing a shirt for the organization he founded, POPS – People Opposed to Paddling Students.  Bob

 http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/morning_news/100708-spanking-more-harm-than-good


   

Ex-coach admits paddling for thrill

By ANDREW WOLFE Staff Writer, Nashua Telegraph, NH, March, 2010

NASHUA – A former Alvirne High School coach and paraprofessional pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he paddled several students for sexual gratification and was sentenced to three years in jail. Michael Palmer, 32, of Wichita, Texas, had been jailed since his arrest in June, and he had faced 120 misdemeanor sexual assault charges, alleging assaults on three boys in 2008.

Hillsborough County Attorney Robert Walsh agreed to drop most of the charges after Palmer pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault, simple assault and criminal threatening on Friday in Nashua District Court, court records show.

Judge Michael Ryan sentenced Palmer to three consecutive 12-month terms in jail, with another two consecutive 12-month terms to remain suspended for five years after he gets out.

Palmer will be required to be evaluated, treated and register for life as a sex offender as part of his sentence, and so long as he remains on probation, he may have no contact with minors, and his computer use can be monitored, according to court records.

Most of the assaults took place in the teens’ homes, and others at Palmer’s former apartment at 40 Bowery St., Nashua.

Palmer formerly worked as a paraprofessional at Alvirne High School and coached the boys’ soccer and wrestling teams before resigning May 5, 2009.

Palmer admitted to abusing his position as an authority figure to spank three teens with either a belt, a paddle or his bare hand as “punishment” for misbehavior or bad grades, and forcing another boy to sit on his lap, and slapping the boy’s face. All four victims were Alvirne students at the time of the assaults.

Police began investigating Palmer in 2008, after someone stole his laptop computer and turned it over to police, suspecting it contained child pornography. Police searched the computer and found pornographic images of older men spanking or paddling teenage boys, but the images proved to be legal pornography, not child porn, police said.

Detective Steve Sweeney spoke with Palmer, who admitted that he was attracted to younger men, but added that “he was sensitive to the fact that his desires could pose a problem, being that he is a high school coach for boys,” police said.

Palmer told police he stays out of the boys locker room and holds all meetings in public view, to avoid any potential problem.

Police renewed their investigation the following spring, however, when a student disclosed to his mother that Palmer had been repeatedly abusing him, police said. The mother had questioned her son about text messages from Palmer on the boy’s phone, police said.

Palmer later admitted to police that he had been playing out scenes from his pornographic movies with the students and that he was receiving mental health help, police said after his arrest.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.

View article at http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/674553-196/ex-coach-to-serve-3-years-for-paddling.html?i=1


 

 

Smacking can lower children's IQ, due to psychological stress, research claims

Spanking a child can lower their IQ

No spanks ... a study shows smacking may cause harm to children. Source: The Daily Telegraph

SMACKING, long used by parents to discipline naughty children, could cause more than tears.

Research revealed it can also lower a child's IQ, with those smacked up to three times a week having a lower IQ due to psychological stress.

US-based sociologist Professor Murray Straus, who studied the impact of smacking for 40 years, likened the effects of corporal punishment to post-traumatic stress, affecting a child's mental development.

He called on governments to outlaw corporal punishment.

After studying 800 toddlers aged between two and four over a four-year period, he found those who were subjected to smacking had an IQ five points lower than that of a child who wasn't physically disciplined.

"The results of this research have major implications for the well-being of children across the globe," he said.
register.com
register.com register.com
 Jimmy Dunne sent you this video link from from ABC13.com:
Controversial punishment permitted by some schools. Click on this to see Houston KTRK-TV report 2010.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7390557

      

Paddling Kids Won't Whip HISD Into Shape, Grier Says

By Margaret Downing, Houston Press Apr. 22, 2010 

terrygrier0421.jpg
​The leaders of Temple, Texas may have decided that restoring paddling to their bag of tricks was a good idea for schools there, but Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier doesn't agree.

At a Wednesday media roundtable, Grier talked about the discussions district personnel are having with parents from what have been identified as the worst schools in the district (for high schools, that's Kashmere, Jones, Sharpstown, and Lee) when Hair Balls asked if anyone has suggested the return of corporal punishment.

"No," Grier replied.

"I've been an assistant principal in a school where we paddled students and I can't think of a time when we paddled students that I thought it changed their behavior. We paddled students and it got to a point where we just didn't see it having impact. I'm sure you've get a lot of people who say 'spare the rod and ruin the child' and that's OK. But personally I don't think paddling has a place in public schools."

"I would not want someone paddling my child. And I don't believe you'd want somebody paddling yours," he said, before adding to general laughter: "That was not necessarily my father's opinion."