Paddling of a Texas student has brought about national controversy on the subject of corporal punishment. As many as 31 states have abolished corporal punishment and 19 states allow it, including Texas. The LISD policy, however, does not allow paddling.

Assistant principal Jason Mullin said he does not see the use of corporal punishment as an appropriate measure in preparing students for the real world.

“In the business world, whatever you do as your job, very seldom do you have a physical consequence for your actions,” Mullin said.

He says there are better ways to discipline a student than physical punishment.

Math teacher, Beth Shelton agrees with Mullin about discipline.

“I think there are other forms of punishment that are more effective,” she said.

In deciding discipline for teenagers, the age group of high school students must be considered according to Mullin and Shelton. They agree that paddling students is a more applicable form of discipline for younger students rather than high school students.

“I agree with corporal punishment for my own child, but I didn’t paddle my own child after she was 5 years old,” Shelton said. “We used other forms of punishment so I’m not sure why people think paddling a teenager is effective.”

Mullin said younger students don’t fully grasp the meaning of being punished later versus having an immediate consequence of their actions, such as paddling.

Taylor Santos was the student paddled in Springtown, Texas after allowing a peer to copy her homework. After being caught, Santos chose to be paddled over a 2 day suspension. Despite the same-sex district policy stating an administrator must be the same sex as the student in order to paddle them, male vice principal Kirt Shaw paddled Santos.

Sophomore Lindsay Frasier said that schools that allow paddling, should definitely only allow teachers to paddle a student if they are of the same sex.  Junior Josh Thompson believes that the policy is a matter of choice.

 “[Same sex policy] should be up to the schools or the parents,” Thompson said.

He also says that paddling could be an alternative to other forms of punishment.

“[Paddling] won’t affect their grades or how they do in school,” Thompson said.

Numerous schools have not used corporal punishment for decades after the 1900’s when a campaign was launched to ban corporal punishment in several states. Teachers and students are now viewing disciplinary actions in a new perspective regarding our modern day civilization.

“We’ve changed as a society, and I think we don’t look as favorably upon corporal punishment,” Shelton said.