Violence in Our Schools

[Anthony Price, the principal of Everman Middle School in Texas, reinstated corporal punishment last year. “It’s had a huge effect,” he said.]

This image is from an article in the NY Times by Rick Lyman, published September 30, 2006.

I quote from the article: "The most recent federal statistics show that during the 2002-3 school year, more than 300,000 American schoolchildren were disciplined with corporal punishment, usually one or more blows with a thick wooden paddle. Sometimes holes were cut in the paddle to make the beating more painful. Of those students, 70 percent were in five Southern states: Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas."

"Among adherents of the practice is James C. Dobson, the child psychologist who founded Focus on the Family and is widely regarded as one of the nation’s most influential evangelical leaders. DuBose Ravenel, a North Carolina pediatrician who is the in-house expert on the subject for Mr. Dobson’s group, said, 'I believe the whole country would be better off if corporal punishment was allowed in schools by parents who wish it.'"

Did the NY Times create a wormhole that sent me into an alternate universe?

I confess I was shocked. I guess I live a more sheltered life than I realized. But then again, I guess it shouldn't surprise me when our "leaders" have just passed a law giving the President the power to torture other human beings. Why should I make a big deal about beating our children?

May God have mercy on our souls! [1671]