Corporal Punishment

Why is the practice still legal in schools in 2025?

In a classroom, on tribal land, I learned to complete and turn in my homework on time. I was in 4th grade, and usually one of the best students, but for whatever reason, one day…

I forgot my homework.

I really did love the school. I have written about the no-questions-asked cafeteria policy and how I was able to eat every day without the shame of charging when I didn’t have money or not eating if I had charged too often. The Cherokee Nation fed every kid and I am forever grateful.

But my math homework.

You should know that I am very bad at math. It never was my strong suit, but I always completed my homework, even in a chaotic home. I must have left it at home that day.

My 4th grade teacher had grown irritated at us for not finishing homework and this day must have pushed her to the limit. I can remember at least three of us without our homework that day.

My teacher grabbed her paddle and herded all three of us into the hallway. She told us she was going to “light us on fire,” which meant we were about to get swats from her wooden paddle.

I was a rule follower for most of my life. The Jess you know today bears little resemblance to the girl and woman I was in my younger days.

I have been paddled exactly twice in my life. I will never forget them — forever singed into my memory.

My dad spanked me once and then never again.

I was four and my babysitter always seemed to be pregnant or nursing. She was also always out of patience. She watched me and my three-year old sister every day in the summer.

It was Mississippi in the late 70s.

One day, the sitter gave us our lunch on the back porch and then proceeded to lock us outside for several hours. She lived in a trailer with a slider off the kitchen. We knocked and knocked and could see her inside the living room watching TV and folding laundry. She acted like she couldn’t see or hear us.

She let us back in before my dad came to pick us up.

When Daddy arrived, he looked at me and asked me why I was so red — I have a very fair complexion and any exercise or time in the sun still turns my cheeks bright red.

I told him the babysitter locked us out all afternoon. He looked at her. She denied it. She also told my dad I lied a lot, and we were only in the backyard for a few minutes before he arrived.

On the way home, Daddy told me he was going to spank me for lying. He did indeed spank me and sent me to bed crying. That was the first time I realized my dad wasn’t a god…he was just a man. Fallible.

My only other experience with corporal punishment was with that fourth grade teacher.

I have to say that this punishment embarrassed me so much that afterward, I begged my mom not to send me to school for weeks. I cried about it at night and dreaded the next day.

The day it happened, we had just returned from recess and had a drink from the water fountain. I was red-faced and hot. We didn’t have air conditioning, and I wasn’t seated next to a fan or window.

It was time for math.

I opened my book to look for my folded paper to hand in and realized it wasn’t in my book. I panicked. Not because I feared a consequence, but because I feared imperfection. I always did as I was asked as I always sought adult approval.

I told my teacher I left my work at home. And then so did another student. And another. I guess that pushed her too far, and she grabbed her paddle that sat on her desk and told us to go into the hall.

In the hallway, she gave us several stern reprimands but I didn’t hear any of it — I looked at her paddle and wondered if she was really going to hit all of us with it. There’s no way, right?

Wrong.

One by one, we had to stand facing away from her and put our hands on the wall and wait for the paddle. I did as I was told and was crying before she hit me. I don’t remember the sting of the swat but I do remember the sting of shame and embarrassment. I liked my teacher and I had let her down so much that she had to swat me in front of a few of my classmates. Everyone was giggling as we each came back into the classroom from the hallway.

I don’t remember ever forgetting my homework again that year, but it wasn’t because my teacher had instilled the value of planning — she only instilled fear. It was devastating.

A Texas Principal’s paddle via Mike Belleme for NPR

Corporal punishment is legal to this very day in Missouri schools. Teachers and Administrators can dole out swats to children as young as five. Giving students swats is legal in too many states: As of 2024, corporal punishment is legal in 17 states and practiced in 14. An additional six other states have not expressly prohibited it.

I “witnessed” swats as a first-year teacher.

I was an 8th Grade Reading teacher at the time and my classroom was directly across from the Principal’s office. He administered a lot of swats. Too many swats.

My administrator came into my classroom during my prep period one day. He told me he needed me for just a minute. I obliged and walked into his office and saw a 7th grade boy sitting in a chair. The boy had racked up five tardies and could choose ISS or swats. The boy chose the swats.

The Principal told me I was a witness to the swats. Oh my god — I wanted to witness no such thing. I did not want to see this happen, but I also didn’t want to be in trouble as a first-year teacher.

The Principal told the boy to pull up his shirt to make sure the swats landed on his rear rather than on his back or legs…the boy was also instructed to lean over and place his hands on the desk.

The Principal “warmed him up” with a light tap on the boy’s rear. Then my administrator delivered three of the hardest swats I have ever seen in my life. I am positive the paddling could be heard in the hallway.

With the first swat, tears sprang from the boy’s eyes. The second swat had the boy give out a little yelp. And the third had the boy jump in pain.

When it was over, the boy rubbed his behind and wiped his eyes and walked out. I had never been a witness before and that would be the last time.

I was horrified. I walked back to my room and fought back tears. I knew the boy’s homelife — he was tardy because he missed the bus too often. He didn’t have an alarm and his mom didn’t get up until noon. He took the swats rather than the ISS because it was a quicker punishment and he was accustomed to being hit.

Damn it.

“Nationwide, Black students and students with disabilities are twice as likely to receive corporal punishment in school as white students without disabilities. Boys are four times more likely to be hit than girls. The majority of students who received corporal punishment were in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas.”

I have lobbied my Representatives to end corporal punishment in Missouri public schools. If you happen to be in a state with this practice, I hope you will contact your State Rep and Senator to ask them to ban the practice as well.

“The practice of corporal punishment is antithetical to positive child and adolescent development and school safety. Schools should be safe places where all students and educators interact in positive ways that foster students' growth, belonging, and dignity—not places that teach or exacerbate violence and fear.” ~U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona

Corporal punishment should be banned in every state and district in the nation.

No child should be hit in school. Especially by adults they trust.

~Jess