confoozled.com - disabled children paddled in school

In followup to my "stirring of the poo" on Friday regarding the recent protests over use of the word "retarded", I wanted to comment on something that has been pointed out by Rob at Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords. According to human rights organizations, more than 200,000 US school children were spanked or paddled in school in the past year. And a disproportionately high number of these kids were students with physical or mental disabilities.

Now I'm not here to talk about whether I believe in spanking. That's a very muddled issue on which I am not yet prepared to weigh in. But regardless of how you feel about spanking as a parent, no school official or anyone else besides that child's own parent should ever have the right to administer such a punishment. If you trust anyone outside of your family to be making decisions about when to spank, or even to deliver the beating, you're a poor excuse for a parent.

And the fact that schools are resorting to physical punishment with disabled students whose problem behaviors more than likely stem from frustration over things beyond their control, and difficulty expressing that frustration, is inexcusable. Yet what has so-called disability advocates up in arms? A word in a stupid movie. To quote Rob:

I don't know. To my thinking, those priorities seem sort of, well, you know. There's probably a word for it. I'm sure you can think of one.

Rob, I completely agree with you.

disabled children paddled in school	Mon 08/25/2008 4:42 PM
In followup to my "stirring of the poo" on Friday regarding the recent protests over use of the word "retarded", I wanted to comment on something that has been pointed out by Rob at Fighting Monsters with Rubber Swords. According to human rights organizations, more than 200,000 US school children were spanked or paddled in school in the past year. And a disproportionately high number of these kids were students with physical or mental disabilities. Now I'm not here to talk about whether I believe in spanking. That's a very muddled issue on which I am not yet prepared to weigh in. But regardless of how you feel about spanking as a parent, no school official or anyone else besides that child's own parent should ever have the right to administer such a punishment. If you trust anyone outside of your family to be making decisions about when to spank, or even to deliver the beating, you're a poor excuse for a parent. And the fact that schools are resorting to physical punishment with disabled students whose problem behaviors more than likely stem from frustration over things beyond their control, and difficulty expressing that frustration, is inexcusable. Yet what has so-called disability advocates up in arms? A word in a stupid movie. To quote Rob: I don't know. To my thinking, those priorities seem sort of, well, you know. There's probably a word for it. I'm sure you can think of one. Rob, I completely agree with you. << prev • home • next >>
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2 comments/trackbacks
comment: from Jennifer Cole/JennyLin Arashi Totally agree! SO MANY more important issues to put energy in to, like the 62% of women with disabilities that experience abuse in their lifetime (ref: http://www.bcm.edu/crowd/?pmid=1409 ). Or, access to adequate health care (http://nickscrusade.org - $3000 goal already met!). I could go on here. Mon 08/25/2008 4:59 PM comment: from Ginny Well that is terrible for both disabled & non-disabled students. I know my 1st grade school paddled & I was petrified. I was already shy & it made my withdraw even more. My brother has some learning problems, his elementary school sent him to a school that was supposed to help students with emotional problems that were still highly intelligent. When my mom put him there, she later found out it was not that type of school at all. The kids would be restrained, hit, put in solitude & many worse punishments. I'm sure it is still going on today. My mom could barely step foot in the school because of all the kids screams, etc. Then she had to fight for years to get him out. It scarred him so badly, I don't think he will ever function as a normal adult, when he should be since he isn't actually mentally retarded, just some learning issues. Mon 08/25/2008 6:11 PM
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