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Beating Children With State Support
by Hal Smith
 Utah State House: Still in the 1850s (click to enlarge) |
According to the Salt Lake Tribune article “Weird Laws Clutter the Utah Code” Utah parents can give written permission to teachers to hit their children even though none of Utah’s public school do it. (Dan Harrie and Judy Fahys, January 18, 1998).
The law was passed in 1992 and says:
“A school employee may not inflict or cause the infliction of corporal punishment upon a child who is receiving services from the school, unless written permission has been given by the student’s parent or guardian to do so.” (UTAH LAW 53A-11-802)
In other words, who ever a child lives with- be it an adoptive parent, step-parent, or uncle- can tell teachers to hit the child with a thick board leaving redness and welts. The thick board is called a “paddle” and was invented to beat slaves.
Since the end of slavery in 1865 America’s schools and institutions have step by step abolished corporal punishment. Hundreds of global and US organizations like the United Nations, the US Parent and Teacher Association, and the National Association of State Boards of Education have passed resolutions against corporal punishment. They believe students have the same right to be protected from physical violence as do wives, animals, and criminals.
According to Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, “the LDS church has consistently discouraged this approach to child rearing.” President Hinckley: “called physical abuse of children unnecessary, unjustified and indefensible.” He said: “I have never accepted the principle of ‘spare the rod and spoil the child.’ I am persuaded that violent fathers produce violent sons. Children don’t need beating. They need love and encouragement.”
Then in 1997 the Utah Senate tried to ban school beatings completely.
The Salt Lake City Tribune wrote an excellent editorial supporting the proposal. It explained that beating students in front of their peers “implies they are less worthy of respect, less human than those whose whose parents say ‘keep your hands off my child’.” (Hands Off Those Students, 23 January 1997)
But when the Senate sent the bill to the Utah House, the House disagreed and the bill died.
Now 10 years later the state Office of Education has a regulation against beating students but it does not override the law allowing beatings with guardian permission. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance stated in a 2006 report that while it is not practiced, some school districts “do not have a formal ban in place.”
While school staff may be under the impression that it is illegal, some districts are still printing handbooks saying teachers can beat students with permission.
For example, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that San Juan School District’s school board unanimously opposed the idea of ending school beatings. Its handbook states:
SAFE SCHOOLS POLICY
A school employee may not inflict or cause the infliction of corporal punishment upon a student who is receiving services from the school unless written permission has been given by the student’s parent or guardian to do so. This applies to students under the age of eighteen (18), or under the age of twenty three(23) if the student is receiving educational services as an individual with a disability.
Kane School District’s handbook has the same policy.
How is beating students with thick wooden board part of a “Safe School?” And safe for who? Teachers who can’t handle students criticizing them to their friends? What kind of school lets guardians give permission to beat 22 year old disabled students?
On top of the disgusting policies of certain public schools, Utah’s law and State Board regulations have no effect on school beatings in private schools. In fact, the government does not collect statistics on hitting in private schools, so there is no way to know for sure whether it is being used. Several teenagers have died in youth boot camps in Utah.
In 2006 SURVEY USA found that only a tiny minority - 15% - of Utah citizens supported corporal punishment in school. Why should their unfortunate children be humiliated in front of their protected classmates?
The poll’s results show that Utah legislators have a responsibility to enforce the will of the overwhelming majority of its citizens and free children once and for all from the threat of school beatings.
NOTES:
Hands Off Those Students, Salt Lake City Tribune, January 23 1997
S.B. 101 to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Public Schools
Utah House Education Committee, Representative Gregory H. Hughes, Chair Republican - District 51
ON THE CHURCH OF LATTER DAY SAINTS’ OPPOSITION TO CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:
- On the Matter of Spanking by Glenn I. Latham
- Joseph F Smith’s biography
- Parenting the Lord’s Way by Allen Leigh
- The Book of Mormon’s Opposition to Corporal Punishment, an essay
- Discipline and the Plan of Salvation by Nola Redd
Posted by windley on March 20, 2007 02:16 PM
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