EDITORIAL: Cassville policy needs to be abandoned

Aug. 30—No teacher, no administrator, no principal should ever strike a student.

Ever.

There are other ways of disciplining students.

Cassville needs to reconsider its decision to bring back what goes by the euphemism "corporal punishment," which blunts the truth about what is really going on: A teacher or administrator or principal is using a paddle to hit a student.

Why? Because the student has been branded a troublemaker, even though experience tells us and research confirms that children struggling in school with behavior issues usually do so because they have other challenges and even trauma that are not being addressed.

Cassville won't talk to us. We asked for an interview. They say they are tried of answering questions about it. That's a cop-out. The district made a terrible call and now doesn't want to face criticism or have to justify its bad decision in the face of mountains of evidence that say it doesn't work and will likely backfire.

Why would a student happily return to a classroom or want to get engaged in a school where he or she has been hit?

Cassville had dropped the practice in 2001 but is bringing it back, saying parents want it, and according to the policy, it will only be used when other forms of discipline, such as suspensions, have failed and then only with the superintendent's permission. And it can only be done with the parental permission.

But if suspensions and other forms of discipline have failed, what makes Cassville board members and administrators think that hitting the child will suddenly make a difference?

Morgan Craven, national director of policy, advocacy and community engagement with the Intercultural Development Research Association, a national educational equity nonprofit, told The Associated Press that corporal punishment is a "wildly inappropriate, ineffective practice."

Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer with American Psychological Association, told the AP that decades of research shows corporal punishment does not reduce inappropriate behavior and is likely to increase aggression, rage, hostility and could lead to depression and self-esteem problems.

He also said there is "very substantial science literature demonstrating again that corporal punishment is not a consistently effective way of changing undesirable behavior."

Sarah Font, an associate professor of sociology and public policy at Pennsylvania State University, was co-author of a 2016 study that found it used disproportionately on poor and minority students, and others have found it more likely to be used on disabled students.

Can Cassville cite even a single study — just one —showing it works? Or that the long-term benefits outweigh the known negative consequences?

The Cassville policy says a witness from the district must be present and that the discipline will not be used in front of other students.

"When it becomes necessary to use corporal punishment, it shall be administered so that there can be no chance of bodily injury or harm," the policy says. "Striking a student on the head or face is not permitted."

Bottom line, this policy needs to be abandoned.