Paddling in schools is a stalwart tradition in some parts of Alabama along with Arkansas and Mississippi, the three states that hit the most students nationwide.
Yet this year, those other two states outlawed corporal punishment for students with disabilities. Meanwhile in Alabama, hitting special needs kids with a board remains a non-issue, according to Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who chairs the education policy committee in the Alabama House.
“It has not come up that I remember,” she said. “I really don't have any knowledge about this issue.”
The group, School Superintendents of Alabama, says corporal punishment for disabled students is not a policy priority for them. State Superintendent Eric Mackey did not respond to a request for comment.
“Don’t none of us really support the idea of it, it just, you know, the law hasn’t said not to use it,” said Lamar County Superintendent Vance Herron.
In Alabama, local school boards and even individual principals decide whether to allow corporal punishment. Nationwide, its use has been on the decline since the 1970s, and most states have outlawed the practice.
Yet Alabama continues to paddle more kids than the majority of states that allow it. Federal civil rights data from 2015, the latest year available, show about 43 percent of Alabama schools use corporal punishment, and more than half of those schools hit kids with a range of disabilities at a higher rate.
Disability rights advocates say paddling kids with special needs is a harmful practice that creates legal liability.
“Paddling a child who doesn't know why you're paddling them or cannot incorporate that information to prevent a future act is just cruel, and ineffective,” said Diane Smith Howard an attorney for the National Disability Rights Network.
Sometimes teachers who were paddled themselves as kids see nothing wrong with it, she says.
In reality it’s traumatic to many special needs students and may alienate them from school.
“Once you've broken that trust it becomes very difficult for (special needs) children to bond with adults at school. And that's how productive learning takes place,” she said.
At one end of the spectrum, three Northwest Alabama schools were about 10 times more likely to hit students with disabilities. All three schools are in counties with a population that is more than 80 percent white. Rogers High School in Lauderdale County hit 40 percent or 8 out of 20 of its disabled kids but paddled only four percent of non-disabled students. In total, 54 kids were hit 283 times at the school in 2015.
“The parents are usually the ones that request that,” said Principal Jamie Burks, who says the school continues to paddle kids.
He says the school always contacts parents before disciplining students.
“That’s not a decision we just make and go with,” he said.
Students at Rogers are sent to the office for things like fighting, using profanity or skipping school. At that point, parents are called and given options like suspension, detention, or paddling.
But Burks says he doesn’t notice students with disabilities getting in trouble more than other students.
At nearby Red Bay High School in Franklin County, the stats are similar. Principal Lance Mitchell says he thinks corporal punishment can be useful, but the decision is in the hands of parents who can elect to opt out.
“Our community as a whole believes it’s effective,” he said.
Advocates disagree. It would be best for teachers to draw on individualized educational plans, which are given to students who receive special education services, in order to decide how to intervene when they struggle, says Nancy Anderson, associate director at the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program.
“I think the state would be better off investing in positive behavioral supports for children (and) enhanced training for school staff.”
Smith Howard, the national advocate, says sometimes teachers misunderstand students’ behaviors and take things personally when they shouldn’t.
“Nationwide, we see a serious, serious lack of training and support for teachers who have kids (with) behavioral disabilities in their classrooms,” Smith Howard said. “The solution there is to add that support and training so that they don't get to that desperate, frustrated space.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that paddling is constitutional. Federal law does not ban paddling students with disabilities, yet it is illegal to punish a student for behaviors stemming from their disability.
“I think people may not be aware of the peril that they could be in,” said Smith Howard from the disability rights group.
Parents in other states have successfully sued after their kids with disabilities were paddled, she says.
In Alabama, Melissa Dunaway unsuccessfully sued her son’s Chilton County school this year after he came home with bruises on his body.
Dunaway had opted out of corporal punishment for her then 9-year-old, who has ADHD and is on the autism spectrum.
She says his school principal called her one day when her son was having a meltdown in class. He gave her the option of calling the police or paddling him. In a panic, she agreed for her son to be paddled.
The next day, he missed his bus to school.
“Come to find out, (the principal) had two teachers hold him down while he put five hard licks across my son’s rear end and left bruises all over him.”
Dunaway documented bruising from the punishment but her case was ultimately dismissed because of the legal immunity school administrators have.
She says her son is now afraid of school and sometimes fights her to stay at home, but things have improved since he moved to a school where the teacher has a quiet area with a blue light and stuffed animals to help calm students.
Alabama courts have made conflicting rulings when it comes to how much force is too much and what level of immunity educators should have for corporal punishment.
Mississippi passed a ban on corporal punishment for students with disabilities in 2019.
In Arkansas one lawmaker also had success drawing attention to the issue.
The first time she introduced legislation to end all corporal punishment the bill flopped, says State Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock).
She said lawmakers wanted to protect districts’ rights to paddle students. By narrowing the legislation to ban paddling students with disabilities, she was able to find consensus.
This year the state passed a ban on corporal punishment for students with disabilities.
“My humanity says to me it’s not okay to hit kids,” said Elliott, adding that it sends the wrong message to children. “Kids are smaller than we are, which is kind of the definition of bullying,” she said.
