Photo: Getty Images
Photo Credit: Getty Images
KOLR reports that the Cassville School District in Missouri is reintroducing corporal punishment, permitting students to be paddled as a last resort so long as their parents have opted-in (each family will be asked to opt in or out). Superintendent Merlyn Johnson said the June decision by the school board spun out of the results of a survey sent to parents last year, in which they listed discipline as a major concern. "Corporal punishment will be used only when other means of discipline have failed and then only in reasonable form, when the principal approves it," says Johnson. The paddling will only be carried out by administrators, and "another certified employee" will be present at the time. Johnson tells the Springfield News-Leader, "My plan, when I came to Cassville, wasn't to be known as the guy who brought corporal punishment back to Cassville. I didn't want that to be my legacy and I still don't. But it is something that has happened on my watch and I'm OK with it."
Link: Newser