One day in the spring of 2016, Kemyriah Patie, a first-grader at Fair Elementary School in Louisville, Mississippi, was accused of saying something inappropriate to another student.
Three teachers administered the punishment. Two held Kemyriah down while she squirmed and screamed, and a third used a wooden paddle to strike her repeatedly on the backside and legs. Her mother, Shawanda Patie, found out about it that day after school.
“I was in an outrage,” Patie says. When she saw black-and-blue bruises all over the backs of her daughter’s legs, she took her to the emergency room.
“My baby couldn’t walk right for a week and a half,” she says. “My child was a straight-A student, and they made her fear school.”
Corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 22 states (see map). While its use is declining, it happens more than many people realize: According to the Department of Education, about 110,000 students were physically punished—usually paddled—in school during the 2013-14 school year, the latest for which data is available.
But the practice is still hotly debated, and critics have sought to end it.
One day in the spring of 2016, Kemyriah Patie, a first-grader at Fair Elementary School in Louisville, Mississippi, was accused of saying something inappropriate to another student.
Three teachers administered Kemyriah’s punishment. Two held her down while she squirmed and screamed. A third used a wooden paddle to strike her backside and legs repeatedly. Her mother, Shawanda Patie, found out about it that day after school.
“I was in an outrage,” Patie says. When she saw black-and-blue bruises all over the backs of her daughter’s legs, she took her to the emergency room.
“My baby couldn’t walk right for a week and a half,” she says. “My child was a straight-A student, and they made her fear school.”
Corporal punishment in schools remains legal in 22 states (see map). While its use is declining, it happens more than many people realize. About 110,000 students were physically punished in school during the 2013-14 school year, the latest for which data is available. And they were usually paddled, according to the Department of Education.
But the practice is still hotly debated, and critics have sought to end it.