i was reading the school handbook today and it states that unless the parent notifies the school in writing the parent is giving permission for corporal punishment to be used.

so i am working on that letter.

i am angry that had i not happened to read the handbook page for page i never would have known my children could be subjected to this.

i want to be clear that corporal punishment absolutely will not be used on my children...but i don't want my anger to come across in this letter. i don't want to be a problem from day 1, kwim?

what i want to write is something like this:


how dare you assume you can hit my child unless i tell you not to! should i also mention that i don't want you to call them stupid, spit on them, curse at them, lock them in closets...gggggrrrrr...hit my child with a weapon you call a paddle and you will face charges of aggravated assault.

obviously i am not going to do that, but i do not want there to be any loop hole in it either. i have already searched the net for a form letter and there doesn't seem to be one.

Here I found this one , it's not great but I'll keep looking.


Sample Letter to My Child's Teacher
Use the sample below to write your own letter to your child's teacher.




Dear __________,

Our family does not believe that school children should be disciplined by paddling. We believe that it sends children the message that hitting people is a way to solve problems.

We know that our child will make mistakes. When that happens, we hope you will help our child learn what is appropriate behavior and how to act more appropriately in the future. If you are having problems with our child, please contact me/us and I/we will make every effort to come to school to help you. Do not paddle our child.

Sincerely, __________

Name
Address
Telephone
Date

cc: Superintendent, Principal

First print this out and use it as a cover letter:
http://www.aap.org/policy/re9754.html


Check this out also. It has lots of interesting information...
http://www.stophitting.com/disatschool/facts.php


This page has a sample letter, but you need adobe acrobat installed and I am too tired to do that right now so I can't read it:
http://www.stophitting.com/disatschool/parentsCanDo.php

This whole topic is really depressing though. I had no idea that it was still done anywhere.

Personally my letter would say:

Dr Sir/Madam,

I am writing to inform you that you do not have my permission to use corporal punishment on my child. If my child is ever physically harmed by a member of the school staff I will pull them out of school and bring charges of pysical endangerment and psychological abuse.

Thank you very much for understanding.

:eek:

as a teacher it is totally out of my realm of thinking. I am shocked and appalled, I can't even come up with a letter. Is this a public school????? Do they beat the children with their hand, a strap, where do they hit them? With what? Do they slap them??? What is considered okay and not okay?? What if a teacher gets out of control??? Are bruises allowed??? Pushing??? Name calling??? How do they teach conflict resolution between children?? Is hitting allowed on the playground or is only the trusted 'adult' allowed to hit the kids??

Oh my god I'm so worn out from thinking about Andrea Yates thing, this one has me riled up again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Knowing me--honestly, this is what I'd do. Wait for back to school night when I can question the principal in front of the other parents with my above questions--thoughtfully, clearly, one by one and note what she says in response to each one. I might even record it. If there isn't an opportunity at back to school night, I'd make an appt right away, make sure you have a witness so you don't go off the deep end (cause I would!!)

I would then take the tape and my written questions to my friendly neighborhood reporter. (who is my dh!! LOL)

:eek:

That's all I have to say about that.....

Our school system has a form to fill out. You can opt in or out of several different disciplines. We've always opted out of corporal punishment (DUH!!) The others are all reasonable - detention, notes home, saturday school.

Check with your system, maybe?

Sigh.

a form letter seems like a no-brainer to me but they don't have it.

here's the policy:


Corporal punishment is permitted in order to preserve and effective educational environment free from disruption. Corporal punishment shall be reasonable and moderate and may not be administered maliciously or for the purpose of revenge. Before administering corporal punishment, such factors as the size, age, sex, physical, mental, and emotional condition of the student shall be considered. These factors will serve as determinates for the type of instrument and the amount of force to be used.

However, the teacher and principal will honor a parent's request that discipline methods other than corporal punishment be used.

Parents not wanting corporal punishment administered on their child must bring and signed and dated note stating that fact. If no note is received, it is assumed that corporal punishment is an acceptable form of punishment for their child. A new request must be received each school year.

Corporal punishment will be limited to paddling the student and governed by the following conditions:

1. The student will be told the reason for the corporal punishment.

2. Only the superintendent or principal may administer corporal punishment.

3. The instrument to be used will be approved by the superintendent.

4. Corporal punishment will be administered in the presence of one other district professional employee and out of view of the other students.

Unbelievable. I am amazed that any school district has a corporal punishment policy, truly amazed. Our sixth grade teacher had a paddle, but I was fortunate enough to have never experienced it. I would not only write the letter, but I would also take up the issue with the district office. Talk to other parents in the attempt to see if this policy can be changed. I imagine there are parents out there who don't read "the fine print" and aren't even aware this policy exists.

Very sad....

it feels good to know i am not alone in being outraged about this.

here is my letter to them:



Re: Corporal Punishment, Erin ******
To: ************** Independent School District
Fr: Earl and Danica *******
Date: September 3, 2002

Our family does not practice physical punishment in any form.

We realize that Erin will make mistakes while entrusted in the care of the school district. When that happens, we hope you will help her learn what is appropriate behavior and how to act more appropriately in the future. If you are having problems with her please contact us and we will come to school to help you.

Do not administer corporal punishment on Erin.

thanks for finding the letter and for all the support. I printed one for each child on bright yellow paper and will be hand delivering these today.

Well, just to make you even more unhappy I'll tell you a little story. I was a spanked child, but my parents felt they were the only ones that had that response ability. When I started public school in 1976 I had my note that said very clearly "Do not spank Elizabeth ever" signed by both parents.

One day in First Grade I was really bad, but it was understandable (very long story involving a teacher having a class chant degrading things at me and point at me and laugh). I called my teacher the 'b' word. I was taken to the principles office and sat down. Now, lucky for me the principles secretary was a congregant of my Dad's so the second she saw me she called Dad. It wasn't soon enough. I got spanked with a paddle. Did I mention that my Dad had taught me how to read upside down? My *open* file with the slip on top was laying on the top of the principles desk while he was spanking me.

Needless to say, my parents flipped out. Nothing like seeing a man in full clergy uniform threatening to kill a principle.

Did I mention that we home school? : )

I *really* didn't think that corporal punishment in the public school system was legal anymore! That truley amazes me . . . :eek:

Originally posted by Hindsight
I *really* didn't think that corporal punishment in the public school system was legal anymore! That truley amazes me . . . :eek:

It is still legal in 23 states. It's been a bit of an issue here with the recent appointment of a new director to our Children & Families Department.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/living/education/k_12/3958931.htm


http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/3958930.htm

In 33 STATES ?!?!?!?!?!

That is RIDICULOUS.

Excuse my yelling but that is outrageous! :eek:

I am pretty sure it is illegal in Minnesota - where can we find out if it is legal in our state or not?

If a teacher paddled my kid, I would paddle THEM. And that's not hyperbole, I would do it.

danica and anyone else who has corporal punishment in their school handbooks (if it is allowed in your state, i am begging you to find out if your district approves of this), you need to find out when your next school board *work session* is by calling your superintendents office. don't bother going to a meeting unless you have to- this is mostly formalized voting on topics that were already discussed in the work session.

one week before the work session, you should write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining that corporal punishment is allowed in your district, along with facts and information from some of the great sites listed above. then let everyone know that you will be going to the school board work session and the time and date.

you could even go as far as copying off information from the websites, and then passing them out to each of the board members, or better yet sending them to the school district before the meeting so they will have time to look the information over....

this is also something that should be taken up with your local state representitive- if i find a site that shows your local rep, i will post it later.

this is something that you really can fight.

blessings,
amity

I really am in shock reading this thread! It just never occurred to me that this was still going on! It doesn't in our school district...of course, we are in California, home of the politically correct.

Still, I have not heard of this happening since the stories my mom used to tell me about getting it in school...amazing!

This should be outlawed and if it was happening in my state/district, whatever, that would be my next step.

I have never hit my child, EVER, and no one else is going to, either!

You GO girl!

Erin :)

Danica,

I sympathize with you on this. We too have had to do the same thing. One word of advice though, hopefully I'm not coming on here too late (after you've already delivered your letter)... when we did ours, we cc'd our attorney, making sure to use Mr. X, Esquire. It didn't cost us anything, we just sent a copy along to our attorney's office (we just used the lawyer dh uses for his business). But this let the school know that we were serious about our rights and I think it makes them less likely to "forget". Also, we have given the school a long letter detailing how we wish certain issues to be handled regarding our child. Living in TX, there are a lot of things you should be aware of regarding things schools can do with regards to your children. If you want more info about this, pm me or email me at res0xtyh@verizon.net

Did this make a good first impression for us with the school administrators? Absolutely not... *but* it opened up the lines of discussion and after we sat down at a meeting with them (at their request) and explained our concerns, they actually listened and while they may not have agreed with everything we said, they did respect our decisions and we developed a very good and open relationship with both the principal and assistant principal. Unfortunately, they both left to head a new school in the district this year.... so we have to start again with new administration. :(

For those who are shocked that this is an issue today... it isn't just Danica's school district... corporal punishment in school is allowable by state law in Texas :rolleyes Some districts specifically outlaw it, but our district unfortunately leaves the decision up to the individual schools within the district, so the policy can change year to year depending upon who is in charge of the school.

Well, I looked it up...here is a site with a list of states and where they stand on this type of violence toward children...here it is:

http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-3980,00.html


Erin

*Thank you* Erin! I was just getting ready to call my Mom, who's a paralegal, and have her draft me a letter for school! Arrghhh, I am mad I never checked this out before. I had NO idea it was still legal in so many places, though I did know it was still legal in the more southern states, and from polls I saw, they supported it for the most part. Grrrrr. Oregon does not allow it........thank goodness.

Originally posted by amity
danica and anyone else who has corporal punishment in their school handbooks (if it is allowed in your state, i am begging you to find out if your district approves of this), you need to find out when your next school board *work session* is by calling your superintendents office. don't bother going to a meeting unless you have to- this is mostly formalized voting on topics that were already discussed in the work session.

one week before the work session, you should write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining that corporal punishment is allowed in your district, along with facts and information from some of the great sites listed above. then let everyone know that you will be going to the school board work session and the time and date.

you could even go as far as copying off information from the websites, and then passing them out to each of the board members, or better yet sending them to the school district before the meeting so they will have time to look the information over....

this is also something that should be taken up with your local state representitive- if i find a site that shows your local rep, i will post it later.

this is something that you really can fight.

blessings,
amity

ITA w/ Amity here... but unfortunately I have been fighting this since Seamus began school and I feel as if I'm fighting a losing battle. Where we live, the attitude we've encountered from fellow parents has ranged from total apathy to one of "my child would never do anything to require a paddling and any child who does gets what they deserve" to "well, our principal doesn't believe in it, so I don't have to worry". What the latter don't seem to realize is that the state law specifically allows the use of corp. pun. and it leaves the decision of whether to use it up to the individual districts. Many districts leave that decision up to the individual schools. So, the policy can vary greatly from school to school and from year to year in the event of an administration change. This law needs to be changed on a state wide level... something which I have been petioning my state reps for years, but does not seem to be a popular stance here in this state. I for one, remember growing up in NY when it was still legal in schools and although I was never subjected to it, I remember the horror of seeing fellow students paddled in class. :( It's something I don't wish on any child.
We had a case make the local news here last year.... in a neighboring city a middle school boy was paddled so badly by the principal that he was left badly bruised. His mom took him to the hospital, had the injuries photographed, and filed charges with the police... the d.a.'s office decided against following through and the principal was "disciplined" internally by the district.

Sorry to be so long, but this is a *very* hot topic with me.

~Colleen

I am always defending schools and teachers but this is totally indefensable (undefensable?? sorry I failed spelling).

I am glad it is illegal in California. I am so shocked and saddened. I didn't even know this was up for debate.

I agree you should CC a lawyer as well as your local news and national news managers. I can point you where to go and who to talk to regarding the media. this is a total outrage.

Teachers and public schools have enough of a PR problem without beating children.

Megan

Here are some more statistics on corporal punishment in schools. Mississippi is apparently the worst state in terms of corporal punishment. Statistics report that approximately 10.1% of the students are struck by educators... appalling.

Corporal Punishment Stats (http://www.stophitting.com/disatschool/facts.php#U.S.%20States%20Banning%20Corporal%20Pun ishment)

BUT in the Jessamine County school district Code of Conduct (for parents, students and employees) it states that:
(copied from the 2002-2003 Jessamine County Schools Code of Conduct book that every parent is REQUIRED to read, then sign and date the back portion)

"Corporal Punishment is defined as the deliberate infliction of physical pain by any means upon the whole or any part of a student's body as a penalty or punishment for student misbehavior. No person within this school district shall inflict or cause to be infliced corpunishment or bodily pain upon a pupil attending any Jessamine County School; provided however, that any such person may, within the scope of his employment, use and apply such amounts of physical restraint as may be reasonable and necessary to protect oneself, the pupil or others from physical injury, to obtain possession of a weapon or other dangerous objects within the control of the pupil, or to protect property from harm."

My dh is 27 and HE was spanked/paddled in school. ICK!

Where the states stand on corporal punishment: Alabama--Legal
Alaska--Illegal
Arizona--Legal
Arkansas--Legal
California--Illegal
Colorado--Legal
Connecticut--Illegal
Delaware--Legal
District of Columbia--N/A
Florida--Legal
Georgia--Legal
Hawaii--Illegal
Idaho--Legal
Illinois--Illegal
Indiana--Legal
Iowa--Illegal
Kansas--Legal
Kentucky--Legal
Louisiana--Legal
Maine--Illegal
Maryland--Illegal
Massachusetts--Illegal
Michigan--Illegal
Minnesota--Illegal
Mississippi--Legal
Missouri--Legal Montana--Illegal
Nebraska--Illegal
Nevada--Illegal
New Hampshire--Illegal
New Jersey--Illegal
New Mexico--Legal
New York--Illegal
North Carolina--Legal
North Dakota--Illegal
Ohio--Legal
Oklahoma--Legal
Oregon--Illegal
Pennsylvania--Legal
Rhode Island--Restricted*
South Carolina--Legal
South Dakota--Illegal
Tennessee--Legal
Texas--Legal
Utah--Illegal
Vermont--Illegal
Virginia--Illegal
Washington--Illegal
West Virginia--Illegal
Wisconsin--Illegal
Wyoming--Legal
* banned by every school board in the state

(here's the link to go there yourself:
http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-3980,00.html )

Just wanted to add a link for anyone interested...it's got a lot of good info on the fight against corporal punishment-

http://www.nospank.net/

Originally posted by sowest
Where we live, the attitude we've encountered from fellow parents has ranged from total apathy to one of "my child would never do anything to require a paddling and any child who does gets what they deserve" to "well, our principal doesn't believe in it, so I don't have to worry".

total apathy seems to be the dominant attitude about it here. we frequently see other kids getting spanked outside. we do not tell anyone we don't spank but the few times it has come up we get that deer-in-the-headlights stare.

a good whipping, the old school, spare the rod...these are phrases we hear a lot here.

ugh! fine...i know we are the odd balls here but i didn't think the schools would do this. and to me it doesn't matter that it may not actually be done often...it bothers me that it is even an option. that in itself sends a message of violence.

Thar's awful, Danica. I think your first letter is the best one. Sad that it has to be that way, though.:( And of course there's always the fear that they will take it out on your kiddo if you dare confront them in a way they don't like.:(

Moved thread from Market board so this information would be easier to find.