reinstated it two years ago<\/u><\/a> as an opt-in for parents. Croke wanted to send a clear message that \u201cit never was going to be OK to inflict harm or pain on a child.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nMuch of the world agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Health Organization has decreed the practice \u201ca violation of children\u2019s rights to respect for physical integrity and human dignity.\u201d In 1990, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child established an obligation to \u201cprohibit all corporal punishment of children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. was the convention’s lone holdout. Americans seemingly take a pragmatic view of the practice, said Sarah A. Font, associate professor of sociology and public policy at Penn State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven though research pretty consistently shows that corporal punishment doesn\u2019t improve kids’ behavior in the long run \u2014 and it might have some negative consequences \u2014 people don\u2019t want to believe that,\u201d Font said. \u201cPeople kind of rely on their own experience of, \u2018Well, I experienced corporal punishment. I turned out fine.\u2019 They disregard the larger body of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, last year introduced legislation, co-sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, to ban corporal punishment in any school receiving federal funds. It was assigned to a Senate committee for a public hearing in May 2023 but has seen no further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Supreme Court has also rejected constitutional claims against the practice. When junior high pupils in Dade County, Florida, filed a lawsuit challenging physical discipline, the court ruled in 1977 that Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment was reserved for people convicted of crimes; it did not apply to classroom discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, 17 states technically allow corporal punishment in all schools, although four prohibit its use on students with disabilities. North Carolina state law doesn’t preclude it but every school district in the state blocked its use in 2018. Illinois lawmakers in 1994 stopped the practice in public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among states that have completely outlawed it, New Jersey took the unusual step of barring corporal punishment in all schools in 1867. Iowa eliminated it in private schools in 1989. Maryland and New York stopped private school use in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private school advocates, who vehemently oppose state intervention, did not oppose the new law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schools in the Catholic Conference of Illinois do not use corporal punishment, executive director Bob Gilligan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an anachronistic practice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ralph Rivera, who represents the Illinois Coalition of Nonpublic Schools, said he’s unaware of any member school that uses the practice. While the group usually opposes state meddling in its classrooms, Rivera said, objecting to a corporal punishment ban on principle is a tough sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven if they don\u2019t do it, they told us to stay out of it, because it doesn\u2019t look good when you say, \u2018No, we want to be able to spank children,'” Rivera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law does not apply to home schools. Home-schooled students are subject to the same rules during school hours as those they face after school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For student athletes, discipline or correction on the football field or the volleyball court would have to go beyond the pale to qualify as corporal punishment, Croke explained during floor debate on the measure last spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe talked in committee about a situation in which maybe a coach said, \u2018Run laps,\u2019\u201d Croke said. \u201cI do not believe this would apply by any means because when we tell a kid to run laps, the goal is not necessarily to inflict pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Legislative debate, nonetheless, included Republican concern that imposing the requirement on private schools could facilitate rules affecting, for instance, curriculum or religious teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Croke, whose school-age child attends Catholic school, said her intent was not to open the door to state regulation of private education but rather to \u201ckeep kids out of harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a red line there, that hitting kids should never be allowed,\u201d Croke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — This school year, Illinois will become just the fifth state in the nation to prohibit corporal punishment in all schools. Legislation that Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law this month bans physical punishment in private schools while reiterating a prohibition on the practice in public schools implemented 30 years ago. When the ban […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5781],"tags":[2381,30131,1708,1556],"class_list":["post-31150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-ban","tag-corporal-punishment","tag-illinois","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31152,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31150\/revisions\/31152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}