need in 5 hours MPA6115
Running head: GEORGIA SCHOOL PUNISHMENT SYSTEM 1
Georgia School Punishment System
Shekima Jacob
South University
Date of Submission: 01/07/2017
Georgia School Punishment System
Corporal punishment refers to the use of physical objects such as canes to inflict pain on an individual with the intent of reprimanding their actions. In the United States alone, corporal punishment in public schools has been banned in more than two-thirds of the states. Amongst the remaining states is Georgia in which the reports of corporal punishment remain shocking to the public. In 2016 alone, 5,849 students suffered corporal disciplinary with more than a third of them being punished in this manner repeatedly. The total number of incidents was 9,413 according to a statistical report released earlier this year (Zolotor and Puzia, 2010). Even worse, 991 students with disabilities suffered corporal punishment in the state of Georgia alone. As such, it remains evident that Georgia’s corporal punishment laws ought to be revised in accordance to today’s society to ensure that students do not continue to suffer at the cost of upholding these laws.
In these debates, it has been argued that corporal punishment laws in Georgia make it known that teachers ought to explore other options before residing to physical punishment. In this case, the law specifies that the student needs to be warned prior to spanking to ensure that it is not the go-to-method for the teachers. Nonetheless, corporal punishment continues to prevail excessively triggering fear in the parent’s hearts because they could receive a phone call at any time with their child in a medical facility as a result of corporal punishment (Zolotor, 2014). Therefore, the students, parents, teachers, school heads, and educational committees in each school district represent the stakeholders who have the power to instigate a shift in these laws. To start with, the stakeholders could take advantage of statutes within the law such as the one that obligates teachers and principals to determine the most feasible penalties and regulations to ensure that corporal laws are not misused. In other words, these stakeholders can enact harsh penalties and strict regulations against corporal punishment, which will automatically cause teachers to come up with better disciplinary measures thus suppressing corporal punishment and later subduing the same.
The main reason for this evaluation of Georgia’s corporal punishment laws is to illuminate their ineffectiveness in addition to the harm they cause to the students. Furthermore, the continued implementation of these laws in Georgia breaks the link between parents, teachers, and institutional heads that is core to good performance thus lowering the overall academic excellence in the state. As evident in other states, the teachers and parents have healthy relationships to the extent that they hold meetings and discuss the best and most effective disciplinary actions for students. Moreover, these discussions ensure that both parties are synchronized so that while teachers build noble disciplinary guidelines, the parents enforce them at home when students are not at school. As such, discipline is upheld both at home and at school, which makes up more than 85 percent of a child’s immediate environment. Successfully, this evaluation will bring to light the few benefits of corporal punishment from the state’s standpoint and inversely pinpoint the countless physical, emotional, psychological, and managerial negative outcomes serving as enough evidence as to why corporal punishment laws in Georgia ought to be lifted (Aucoin, Frick & Bodin, 2006).
References
Aucoin, K. J., Frick, P. J., & Bodin, S. D. (2006). Corporal punishment and child adjustment. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27(6), 527-541.
Knox, M. (2010). On Hitting Children: A Review of Corporal Punishment in the United States. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 24(2), 103-107.
Zolotor, A. J. (2014). Corporal punishment. Pediatric Clinics of North America. W.B. Saunders.
Zolotor, A. J., & Puzia, M. E. (2010). Bans against corporal punishment: A systematic review of the laws, changes in attitudes and behaviours. Child Abuse Review, 19(4), 229-247.
