Paddling students returns to Missouri school district — but only if parents opt in

A Missouri school district is bringing back an old-fashioned and controversial method of discipline: corporal punishment.

Cassville Public Schools, a small district in the southwest corner of the state, announced the policy change while heading into the new school year, in a letter sent to parents.

Cassville is roughly 59 miles southwest of Springfield.

It’s a move many have been clamoring for, Superintendent Merlyn Johnson told KRBK, and a punishment some parents see as a better alternative to suspensions and other hands-off means the district uses to discipline its nearly 1,900 students.

“The complaints that we have heard from some of our parents is that they don’t want their students suspended. They want another option,” Johnson told the TV station. “And so, this was just another option that we could use before we get to that point of suspension.”

Under the policy, a misbehaving student can now be swatted on the buttocks with a paddle, according to the district’s student handbook for 2022-2023. It’s one option among several and it requires the approval of a student’s parents, who can choose to “opt-in.”

The change has drawn mixed reactions, social media posts show, with some seeing it as a step backward toward an abusive practice that has fallen out of favor.

But most of that criticism is coming from outside Cassville, Johnson told the Springfield News-Leader. In his town, there’s been plenty of applause, he says.

“We’ve had people actually thank us for it,” he said. “Surprisingly, those on social media would probably be appalled to hear us say these things but the majority of people that I’ve run into have been supportive.”

But not every voice speaking against the district can be written off as outside agitators.

“I do not think it’s appropriate,” Miranda Waltrip, a parent of three Cassville students, told KRBK.

Much of the community is comfortable with spanking and paddling children — it’s been passed on from generation to generation — but it’s misguided at best, Waltrip told the outlet.

“We live in a really small community where people were raised a certain way,” she said. “And so, for them, it’s like going back to the good old days but … it’s going to do more harm than good at the end of the day.”

Most states have banned corporal punishment, but Missouri is one of 19 that haven’t.

Using physical force on a child, inflicting pain to correct their behavior, can have unintended consequences, experts say. Even spanking by a parent — which nearly a third of U.S. parents reported doing — may cause issues with mental and emotional development in children, according to Harvard researchers.

Ultimately, it will be up to the parents of Cassville to decide what is appropriate treatment of their kids, Johnson told the News-Leader.

“My plan, when I came to Cassville, wasn’t to be known as the guy who brought corporal punishment back to Cassville. I didn’t want that to be my legacy and I still don’t,” he said. “But it is something that has happened on my watch and I’m OK with it.”

McClatchy News reached out to Cassville Public Schools for comment.

This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Paddling students returns to Missouri school district — but only if parents opt in."