An Texas principal was arrested after paddling a student, renewing debate over corporal punishment

By Pooja Salhotra 

The Texas Tribune

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A highschool principal in East Texas was arrested final week after paddling a scholar, inflicting her bodily harm and sparking nationwide headlines that renewed the talk over whether or not corporal punishment belongs in colleges.

Texas is considered one of simply 17 states that enable corporal punishment — which incorporates hitting, spanking, paddling or intentionally inflicting ache to self-discipline college students — in its public colleges. Texas educators can use bodily technique of punishment if the varsity district’s board of trustees adopts a coverage permitting it. Dad and mom can decide their little one out of receiving corporal punishment by offering written discover to the district.

Texas lawmakers have lengthy mentioned a ban on the follow, which dates again to the nineteenth century. Solely a decade in the past, lawmakers in Austin added a provision that enables a mother or father to decide their little one out of corporal punishment. State lawmakers debated the controversial follow this yr after Rep. Alma Allen, a Houston Democrat and former public college instructor, carried a invoice that might prohibit public college workers from utilizing corporal punishment on college students.

Training advocates and little one improvement consultants argued that the follow inflicts concern and detrimental psychological well being impacts on college students. Lawmakers rejected the coverage shift, with a number of Republican lawmakers advocating for holding the follow as a result of it’s referenced within the Bible.

Nationally, the variety of college students who obtain corporal punishment has declined considerably lately. A U.S. Training Division report discovered that the variety of college students who acquired corporal punishment dropped by greater than one-third between the 2013-14 college yr and the 2017-18 college yr, the newest information out there.

In March, U.S. Secretary of Training Miguel Cardona urged governors and college leaders to ban corporal punishment in colleges. In a letter, he inspired districts to switch the follow with evidence-based strategies, equivalent to optimistic behavioral interventions. Two states, Colorado and Idaho, handed payments this yr to ban the disciplinary follow. And U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, has launched a federal invoice to ban corporal punishment in any college that receives federal funding.

Though the follow is authorized in Texas, Overton Excessive Faculty principal Jeffery Hogg was arrested Wednesday on one rely of assault in relation to the incident that occurred on Aug. 14. In keeping with the arrest affidavit, Hogg hit a feminine scholar on the butt 3 times utilizing a picket paddle to self-discipline the coed for an undisclosed infraction. The coed, whose identify has not been launched, had seen bruising not less than 48 hours after the paddling and reported a grievance with the Rusk County Sheriff’s Workplace.

The case has been referred to the Rusk District Lawyer’s Workplace and is presently being investigated. Hogg has not been formally charged and has returned to his duties as principal.

Overton is dwelling to about 2,300 individuals. It sits practically 22 miles east of Tyler.

Overton Unbiased Faculty District Superintendent Larry Calhoun defended Hogg, saying he acted in accordance with college district insurance policies. In an announcement posted on the district’s Fb web page final month after Hogg punished the coed, the district mentioned it will replicate on present corporal punishment insurance policies, that are set by the varsity board. However Calhoun advised The Texas Tribune on Monday that the district is just not presently contemplating any modifications to its coverage.

“We wish to get to the opposite aspect of this and to have the ability to replicate objectively,” Calhoun mentioned, including that he regretted that this incident was garnering consideration, versus extra optimistic district information. “I want we might simply let the investigation take its course, but it surely has change into a frenzy on social media and elsewhere.”

It’s unclear what the feminine scholar was being punished for. Nonetheless, per the varsity district’s coverage on corporal punishment specified by the varsity handbook, the coed had the choice to endure paddling or be despatched to in-school suspension. The coed selected paddling and the coed’s mother or father and one other feminine witness remained within the room, in accordance with arresting paperwork. After receiving two hits, the coed mentioned she was harm and didn’t need the third hit, the affidavit states. Each Hogg and the coed’s mom inspired the coed to finish the punishment, and the coed determined to comply with by means of and obtain the third hit.

The next day, the coed was interviewed on the Baby Advocacy Heart, a statewide group that helps victims of kid abuse, and examined by a nurse who took pictures of the accidents, which included substantial bruising and swelling. A forensic pediatrician who evaluated the images mentioned that bodily punishment that ends in accidents that last more than 24 hours is per little one bodily abuse.

Dad and mom in Overton ISD, which serves about 470 college students, have defended Hogg on social media and questioned why he was arrested despite the fact that the coed’s mother or father was current for the punishment.

“If a scholar is a distraction at school then sure I imagine they deserve corporal punishment,” Autumn Holland, who has two sons in Overton colleges, mentioned in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “I’m a agency believer within the Bible and it says ‘spare not the rod.”

Holland mentioned considered one of her sons has acquired paddling as soon as and she or he doesn’t suppose it brought on him to undergo bruises or different accidents. Holland questioned why the coed’s mother or father wouldn’t have intervened if the principal was in truth being too aggressive with the hits. And she or he mentioned that if the principal was arrested, the mother or father ought to have additionally been held accountable.

Craig Sweeney, an investigator within the Rusk County district lawyer’s workplace mentioned he had by no means seen a corporal punishment case delivered to his workplace and that many districts have achieved away with the follow lately.

In keeping with federal information from the 2017-18 college yr — the newest yr for which information is out there — 8,758 Texas colleges used corporal punishment on 13,892 Texas college students. That variety of college students is larger than in some other state apart from Mississippi.

A big physique of analysis has discovered that corporal punishment doesn’t profit college students and may trigger them substantial hurt, together with worse psychological well being, elevated aggression and delinquent habits, and elevated chance of abusing one’s personal kids.

“I sympathize with the principal who mentioned he’s making an attempt to show college students — I perceive that’s the purpose,” mentioned Elizabeth Gershoff, a professor on the College of Texas at Austin who has studied the results of corporal punishment on kids. “However the one factor hitting kids teaches them is that A, in case you are highly effective you possibly can hit individuals to get what you need and B, you need to attempt to keep away from being round these individuals.”

Allen’s workplace has advised the Tribune that the lawmaker would deliver a invoice to ban corporal punishment throughout the subsequent legislative session if she’s requested.

Disclosure: Fb and College of Texas at Austin have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.

This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune.

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