SubscribeACLU Smells Money In Paddling Lawsuits
An ACLU press release being portrayed as news by those tireless carriers of water at the Associated Press:
Study finds minorities more likely to be paddled
By LIBBY QUAID
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paddlings, swats, licks. A quarter of a million schoolchildren got them last year — and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human rights group…
For the study, which was being released Wednesday, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists. Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, states that account for 40 percent of the 223,190 kids who were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year.
Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.
Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.
Widespread paddling can make it unlikely that forms will be checked. A teacher interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Tiffany Bartlett, said that when she taught in the Mississippi Delta, the policy was to lock the classroom doors when the bell rang, leaving stragglers to be paddled by an administrator patrolling the hallways. Bartlett now is a school teacher in Austin, Texas.
And even if schools make a mistake, they are unlikely to face lawsuits. In places where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals generally have legal immunity from assault laws, the study said.
“One of the things we’ve seen over and over again is that parents have difficulty getting redress, if a child is paddled and severely injured, or paddled in violation of parents’ wishes,” said Alice Farmer, the study’s author.
A majority of states have outlawed it, but corporal punishment remains widespread across the South. Behind Texas and Mississippi were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.
The study also found:
– In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.
– Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.
– Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.
More than 100 countries worldwide have banned paddling in schools, including all of Europe, Farmer said. “International human rights law puts a pretty strong prohibition on corporal punishment,” she said…
Of course paddling would hit minorities and the poor hardest.
Anyway, if Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union claim it, then it certainly must be true.
But you do have to wonder how they define “disproportionate.”
More importantly this “study” will launch a thousand taxpayer-supported lawsuits.
And even if schools make a mistake, they are unlikely to face lawsuits.
We can’t have that!
The ACLU must get its millions so they can continue their noble work of destroying our country.
10 Responses to “ACLU Smells Money In Paddling Lawsuits”
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August 20th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I like how the text above the graphic defines what paddling is, as if it were an obscure concept that few people were famliar with.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Obviously, all those “paddlings” haven’t worked. Look at the amount of incarcerations in the US. By far, most are African Americans (I use the word “Americans” begrudgingly, in this case). When you insist on disobeying the laws f America, you become an America-hater, and you need to be deported. ALL immigration needs to be halted, because today’s cop of immigrants all want to steal from America, vs the ones who came to this country in the early 1900s, seeking freedom, and willing and anxious to give back, as well.
Typically, the ACLU is shedding tears for such miscreants. I (as a non-liberal Jew) am tired of the Jews in the ACLU constantly trying to divide and destroy our wonderful country with their lies and hateful rhetoric.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I got a paddling at least twice a day when I was in school. Once at school and then when I got home. I guess that explains why my budding criminal career never developed past copping a feel from a willing lass.
I never understood how my mother knew I got a paddling at school as soon as I got home being as we did not have a telephone…
August 20th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Is it just me or is the ‘color scheme’ on that map a little disturbing?
August 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Interesting title of the map as well… “student beatings”? As for the statistics maybe the minority students were disproportionately bad… sure seems like they are disproportionately bad when they grow up.
If they have a problem with the paddlings, which I actually think should be administered at home, why would they not just attack the perceived problem as a whole? I think they should just kick the kids out of the school systems if they dont know how to behave appropriately. Education is not a right! Its a privilege!!!
August 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Maybe we should get some reverse affirmative action on these… paddle the good kids too as long as they are white!!! Also, if they are able to opt out of the paddling and they chose to do so and then it still occured wouldnt they then have the legal recourse that would not be afforded to them otherwise?
“Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.
Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.”
August 20th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I just had a recovered memory that I was black and also paddled in school!
Where’s my settlement?!?!
August 21st, 2008 at 2:36 am
I just completed my own study: “Study finds minorities require more paddling”. The results aren’t conclusive yet, as more funding grants are required to verify the data, but I’m going to publish it anyway because I’m a jerk.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I’m an atheist, but a strong conservative (funny, I know), but I was paddled probably every week that I was in gra
August 21st, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Sorry.. my computer zonked out on me..
Anyways, I was paddled, probably, every week that I was in grade school (Christian School). Guess what.. I’m white, and in my 30’s now, and have never, ever comitted a violent crime. I have only tried to improve my life and that of my family. This entire thing is ridiculous, and looking elsewhere to place blame.
It’s always someone else’s fault. Always.
How about teaching kids when they grow up that actions have consequences? Is that such a novel idea?