Opposition to paddling grows

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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2628997

Opposition to paddling grows
By PARIS ACHEN
Special to the Chronicle

WHEN JIMMY DUNNE was a math teacher at Houston's Black Middle School in the early 1960s, paddling was the customary way to punish a student's unruly behavior.

"I paddled students, but I started thinking, why am I doing this when I don't do it at home?" said Dunne, now president of People Opposed to Paddling Students, a Houston-area group formed in 1982. "I noticed some teachers were getting a sadistic pleasure out of hitting kids, so I stopped after a couple of years."

Dunne's group and national organizations, such as the U.S. chapter of End Physical Punishment of Children, have been leading a campaign to abolish corporal punishment at schools in the United States.

So far, about 28 states have banned the practice in public schools because of the potential for abuse and lawsuits. Yet Texas continues to lead the nation with nearly 75,000 students paddled in 2000, according to a survey by the Ohio-based Center for Effective Discipline.