Corporal Punishment in Schools: Teacher Faces Child Abuse Charges for Ordering Classmates to Beat Up Student

This is a perfect example of how, if corporal punishment were permitted in schools, it would get totally out of control. According to the Associated Press, 22-year-old teacher Brian Havel ordered a student in Grand Junction, Colorado, to do 100 pushups for being tardy. When the kid couldn't complete the pushups, the teacher told other kids to hit him. We can't even do that to Iraqi insurgents!

The article is in today's Denver Post, and I can't believe some of the online comments to this article support the teacher and corporal punishment ! According to the comments, this kid deserved corporal punishment because he was "disrespectful" and "out of control." We don't even know why he was late. Corporal punishment replaces brain power. Teachers who rely on corporal punishment are deficient in brains. If you support corporal punishment, at least for tardiness, my questions to you are these:

Has your own kid ever been late to class because YOU were late driving him to school?

Have YOU ever been late to work? Hey, I'm sure you have. What person has never walked into work late? Maybe your boss should have made your co-workers hit you.

Has your best buddy at work ever been late? Maybe you should have landed him or her a right hook.

Don't say the workplace isn't the same.

The concept is very much the same. If teachers are allowed to use corporal punishment, then bosses should be allowed to use "corporate" punishment and hit YOU at work when you screw up an assignment or come in late.

Ever been late to a meeting at work? Same thing.

I was late to class in high school and college...especially college. I was never hit. Are you saying I should have been? Are you saying that my homeroom teacher, Miss Bemnur, should have struck me? I would have hit her right back! Then I would have came in late the next day just to piss her off even more.

So I came in late. I still managed to graduate with honors. Even Amie What's-her-funny-last-name came in late from time to time...she went on to become the class valedictorian and got a scholarship to Harvard.