Corporal Punishment in Schools

The use of corporal punishment is mostly thought of as the act of spanking a child for doing something wrong. The problem that most parents and teachers are agreeing on is when should corporal punishment be used on a child. Some educators believe you should use corporal punishment if a student forgets their homework or does not bring necessary supplies to school. There are educators teaching in schools today that believe if students were receiving some type of punishment at home then they would not have to take discipline into their own hands. This causes a conflict between educators and parents because some parents feel that these problems could be straighten out if the parent was aware of the problem and could get involved before their child received some form of corporal punishment. While other parents believe that the schools should not rely on corporal punishment to control and discipline students it is the job of the parent to discipline their child.
Tennessee ranks fourth in the use of corporal punishment just below Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama. Jefferson County has used corporal punishment 235 times in the 2000 school year, which is far above the use compared to Hamblem, Knox, Grainger, Hancock, and Hawkins County (1999-2000 corporal punishment in Tennessee public schools, 2000). Tennessee does have the right to use corporal punishment under the Tennessee State Law TCA-49-6-4104, which gives local school districts the authority to make rules governing the administration of corporal punishment to student (Facts about corporal punishment, 2000). The question of when and how is still a cloudy subject in schools today and will probably continue until corporal punishment is banned in all states or a strict guideline is enforced.