Jones is in the process of suing the Levy County School District for paddling her son without her permission. "She whipped him up and to me that's child abuse." "If I would have hit my son how she hit him, I would have been in jail, I would have been on the news, I would have been messed up trying to get my children back," Jones says. Gierrea's mom says the paddling left welts on Gierrea's bottom, and she was outraged.
"Then spank me on my booty," Gierrea says. He says the principal first told him to take his jacket off. Gierrea says the principal spanked him twice for slapping another boy on the school bus. He was 5 at the time and it was his second week of preschool. Jones says she didn't sign it, but her son, Geirrea Bostick, was paddled anyway. Last year, the principal at Joyce Bullock Elementary sent home a waiver asking parents for permission to paddle students. Long says he thinks all schools should paddle students because the spankings teach discipline and respect - and much of the community agrees.Įvery once in a while, parents like Tenika Jones of Levy County will object to their child getting paddled. "I've had it plenty of times from him and he gives it to us a little more." "The assistant principal, he hurts," Long says. But even to a bull rider, Long says, the paddle can sting depending on who's doing the spanking. States That Allow Corporal Punishment In Schools:Ī couple months ago, Long won $7,200 at a bull-riding competition in Texas. He says he's been paddled for things like, "throwing papers, throwing pencils, a couple times for cussing and then back-talking." Senior Cole Long has never made a paddle, but he's been on the receiving end of one. You can't buy it at a store, so Holmes County High asks wood-shop students to make it for them. It's about 16 inches long, 5 inches wide and a 1/2 inch thick. The paddle at Holmes County High School looks like a short rowboat paddle. There are no statewide regulations on what the paddles should look like, so each school district creates its own.
Schools often use a wooden or fiberglass paddle for their spankings. "I think the problem with society is we quit paddling," he says. Glover's feelings are shared by many parents in this part of Florida.
"And my children are going to know what's right and wrong." "I got my butt beat and I know what's right and wrong," he says. Students at the school are spanked only by Dixson or the assistant principal, and there is always a witness. Holmes County High School Principal Eddie Dixson says paddling is used for minor offenses like back-talking or consistent tardiness. "No child should not feel completely safe when they go to school." "When I heard that this practice still exists, I was mortified," Porth says. He says where students live should not determine whether they get spanked at school. Ari Porth sponsored a bill to ban school corporal punishment statewide. Most Florida school districts have opted out of using corporal punishment, but almost every county in the state's rural North has policies that allow schools to paddle students. They tell you to put your hands up on the desk and how many swats you're going to get."įlorida is one of 19 states, mostly in the South and Mountain West, that still allow public schools to paddle, according to the Center for Effective Discipline. "I been getting them since about first grade," says Lucas Mixon, now a junior at Holmes County High School in Bonifay, Fla. In parts of America, getting spanked at school with a wooden or fiberglass board is just part of being a misbehaving student. Spanking in school may seem like a relic of the past, but every day hundreds of students - from preschoolers to high school seniors - are still being paddled by teachers and principals. Almost every county in the state's rural north has policies that allow schools to paddle students. A wooden paddle sits on the principal's desk at Sneads High School in Jackson County, Fla.