OHIO SCHOOLS Paddling isn't a hit in most districts

The rapidly fading practice is more common in rural areas.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
A Trumbull County school district is among 26 in Ohio that appeared on a list of those who paddle students.
LaBrae schools paddled seven students in seven paddlings during the 2001-02 school year, according to the most recent numbers compiled by the nonprofit Center for Effective Discipline in Columbus.
The district's superintendent was not available to comment.
Nadine Block, director of the center, said the figures are from the Education Management Information System at the Ohio Department of Education.
Statewide, 446 students were involved in 638 paddlings.
Twenty-eight states have total bans on corporal punishment, Block said, and Delaware is expected to pass a ban this year.
"Corporal punishment is going the way of the buggy whip," Block said. " ... We're a little bit behind the norm."
For example, in 1986, when Wisconsin reported 100 children paddled and banned corporal punishment, Ohio reported 44,000 paddled, Block said.
She said numbers get higher in the rural South, with Texas reporting 74,000 children paddled -- 22 percent of the total United States number of 342,000 in 1999-2000, the most current year federal numbers are available.
Pennsylvania has a proposal seeking a ban before its Legislature now, Block said.
Other schools
Administrators of districts that are on an older list of paddlers say the use of corporal punishment has all but faded away.
Statistics from 1999-2000 show that 155 students were paddled at Eagle Heights Academy, a community charter school in Youngstown, Block said. The numbers come from those released this year by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, she said.
In that same year, Block said, three other Mahoning Valley districts reported paddlings to the state: four students were involved in six paddlings in the Western Reserve School District; 15 were involved in 16 paddlings in the LaBrae School District; and 38 were involved in 109 paddlings in the Bristol School District. Block said Eagle Heights Academy numbers do not appear on state reports.
Eagle Heights
At Eagle Heights Academy, new administrators said workers from 1999-2000 are gone and they could not confirm the federal number. In April 2000, former academy director Jim LaRiccia said about two students were paddled each week.
Superintendent Alex Murphy said there has been minimal use of corporal punishment in his two years with the school.
"We do not use it very often," said Principal Sandra Sellers, who has been with the school since October. "I personally don't agree with it and have never administered it."
Murphy said administrators plan to recommend that the board adopt a policy to ban corporal punishment at the academy.
Block called the plan "wonderful."
"I'm just thrilled that Mr. Murphy is planning to ban corporal punishment," she said. "He knows it doesn't work. He knows kids' behavior doesn't improve. You just keep hitting the same kids over and over."
Current academy policy allows a principal or dean to use corporal punishment with written permission from a parent or guardian, Sellers said. Parents are notified before and after.
Bristol, Western Reserve
In Bristol, there have been no paddlings in a couple years, said Superintendent Rocco Nero.
The district has, instead, been using in-school suspensions, but they will be eliminated because of a lack of funds, Nero said. The alternative will be to re-institute Saturday suspensions. Nero was not with the district in 1999-2000.
Western Reserve Superintendent Charles Swindler said the numbers appear to be wrong. In the 11 years he's been superintendent, he said, there have been two incidents during which corporal punishment was used. None have been in the past two years.
The district does allow paddlings with parental permission. It is usually discussed as an alternative to expulsion or suspension and parents are involved. Parents are notified, in writing, of when the discipline will take place and also receive a report following the action. Principals deliver the paddling in the presence of a witness.
It's been used sparingly, usually at the elementary level, Swindler said.
"The threat is a deterrent," he said.
The higher numbers in the center report may be due to restraints of multi-handicapped students who are forcibly detained if they pose a threat to themselves or others, Swindler said.
Rural areas
Block said corporal punishment is defined as "the intentional infliction of pain for the purpose of stopping or preventing a misbehavior" and actions taken to protect students should not be included in the numbers.
Paddlings seem more common in rural areas, Block said. Urban areas are likely to ban it in the face of statistics that show minority children are paddled two to three times the rate of other students, she added.
She commended the Youngstown area, saying that the Diocese of Youngstown banned corporal punishment in 1984, a year before Ohio allowed its public schools to have such bans. In 1993, the state banned corporal punishments in most cases. State law allows districts to pursue it if a school board passes a resolution to keep it after a study by a committee, Block said. Parents have a right to refuse.