Ban on school spankings nears enactment

This Patriot News Article regarding Corporal Punishment in the Public Schools is just a follow-up to an ongoing rule change by the PA State Board of Education. The Older Pittsburgh Post Gazette article is a little clearer on the issues involved.

Steve Ulrich

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Ban on school spankings nears enactment

A ban on corporal punishment in Pennsylvania public schools could be decided today. The final hurdle is a hearing this morning before the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, which has the last word on rules proposed by the state Board of Education. Last week, a state House committee voted to oppose removing corporal punishment from the books, claiming that doing so would teachers' hands. But a Senate panel that would have to concur in blocking the rules is declining to act. Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that still have it on the book, but less than two dozen school districts — none in the midstate — allow it. The change, favored by the state Board of Education, would still allow teachers to defend themselves.

— Jan Murphy

Source: http://www.pennlive.com/newslogs/patriotnews/index.ssf?/mtlogs/penn_patriotnews/archives/2005_10.html#085414

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State ban on paddling unruly students not yet approved

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

By Lillian Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Though the paddle wielded against unruly students is a rarity in Pennsylvania schools, members of the state House Education Committee are reluctant to hang it up altogether.

The committee canceled a meeting scheduled for yesterday to discuss an update to education regulations because members are uncomfortable with a provision that would prohibit corporal punishment in schools. They also have concerns about changes to regulations on students' freedom of expression.

Because of those concerns, expressed in a heated hearing last month, the State Board of Education withdrew the proposed changes and plans to rework them.

Corporal punishment is an issue that gets people on both sides riled up, even though evidence indicates that it's not used that frequently in the districts that permit it.

The state allows districts to set policy and does not keep data on which districts permit corporal punishment, but a Temple University study conducted several years ago found that about 400 of 501 school districts prohibited it.

At the Feb. 23 hearing, however, Rep. Ronald Miller, R-York, said corporal punishment was "darn effective" and he and other committee members questioned the idea of prohibiting it.

"Several of the legislators did not want to ban corporal punishment," said Edith Isacke, head of the State Board of Education committee that has been working since 1996 on revisions to a series of regulations on student rights and responsibilities known as Chapter 12. The revisions were formally presented in 2003 and must be approved by late December or the whole process will have to start from scratch.

"Not many schools have corporal punishment anymore; 28 states ban it. But we still have people that believe that you should paddle kids," Isacke said. The practice is more common in some private schools, not generally affected by state bans.

Cases in which it's used against parents' wishes tend to generate publicity. In Illinois, a mother withdrew her 6-year-old son from Schaumburg Christian School in a suburb of Chicago rather than comply with the school's regulation that required that she spank her son for talking too much in class, chewing gum and bringing toys to school, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Current Pennsylvania regulations let districts set policy on corporal punishment, but in all cases parents must be notified and can tell the district in writing that they do not want their children subjected to corporal punishment. The proposed change would prohibit corporal punishment except in self-defense, to break up a fight, to gain control of a weapon or other dangerous object, or to protect people or property.

Districts contacted for this article that permit corporal punishment said it is used sparingly.

"It is rarely used but we do permit it," said Deborah Kolonay, superintendent of Penn-Trafford schools.

The instrument is a paddle and the principal administers it. It is not used at all at the elementary level, and no more than 10 times a year at the middle school level and 10 times a year at the high school level, she said.

The district's policy is in the student handbook and in a newsletter sent out each school year. In recent years, from one to 20 families have notified the district that they wished to opt out, Kolonay said.

"It is used as a last resort, and this after consultation with parents and discussion between the principal and the parents," she said.

State Rep. Jess Stairs, R-Mount Pleasant, chairman of the House Education Committee, said he hadn't polled his members on the issue. But at the hearing Feb. 23, some were specifically in favor of retaining corporal punishment, while others said they were reluctant to infringe on the right of individual school districts to set disciplinary policy.

He said he shared the latter concern, seeing it as a "balance of power" issue in which the executive branch was usurping legislative branch powers.

Stairs said he would meet with education committee members as well as members of the State Board of Education.

"We do want to draft a letter, so they can be a little closer to what we want," he said.

Isacke said her committee was asked to define "corporal punishment" and to clarify the phrase "immediate or serious harm" in the section on freedom of expression that says, "Students have the right to express themselves unless such expression materially and substantially interferes with the educational process, threatens immediate or serious harm to the welfare of the school or community, encourages unlawful activity or interferes with another individual's rights."

"We have a meeting March 16 and we'll discuss what changes to make. We don't want to go back without making those changes, because they might vote it down."

That has happened a number of times to the Chapter 12 revisions.

"We started in 1996, then we withdrew it, then we started in earnest again in 2000. There were a lot of other issues at that time. Now it's just boiled down to these two," she said.

--------------------------------------------------- (The Associated Press contributed. Lillian Thomas can be reached at lthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3566.)

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05068/468325.stm

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