Putting Education Reform To The Test

Mapping Corporal Punishment in Florida Schools

Find out which Florida school districts used corporal punishment in the 2009-2010 school year. Click on individual district to see specific schools and numbers. Read the story.

Source: Florida Department of Education | Download the data


  • Roban

    do they spank in orlando?

    • Sansevieria


  • A teacher

    These days parents want to be their child’s friend rather than their parent and often do not give consequences for their child’s misbehavior at school.  In school suspension, out of school suspension, detention, silent lunch– consequences the school gives, do not work, nor have they proven effective to correct misbehavior.  Neither has positive reinforcement, such as special treats, awards, recognization, etc to those that display proper behavior.  If Paddling allows the child to change their behavior to a more socially acceptable behavior, then paddle away— and if you don’t want your child paddled– then discipline them!  Stop being a softy, take away the cell phone, ipod, xbox, playstation, clothes, computer, tablet, etc for a good amount of time and STICK to it!!  If parents parented then paddling wouldn’t be necessary.

    • Gmajms

      I think it is a shame that adults feel the need to discipline children out of fear of physical punishment rather than teaching children to internalize what is right or wrong. Hazing was a tradition, but it is wrong and so is spanking in school. As long as spanking continues the cycle of physical abuse will continue to thrive. As a teacher it makes me SICK to think about any child being spanked in school. It is quite frankly, a horror that it still happens today…I’m ashamed and embarrassed for this continued, ineffective method of discipline.

    • Cam

      Not really. There are better way of disciplining kids. Look around you. There are plenty of kids out there who don’t get spanked or even punished at all and they are well behaved and smart. Yet adults tend only to notice the ones that misbehave. There are plenty of paddled kids that also misbehave and we can’t always try to link the misbehavior to the way their parents treat them. There’s nothing wrong with being your child’s friend and it doesn’t mean you can’t also be a loving, supporting parent.

      • ChinWah

        I agree with you 100%

  • sam schaer


    • Sansevieria

      Where is your scientific data, proof, or evidence of this claim you are screaming in all-caps?

      • megarjohnson2

        its common sense, if your ass gets busted you will think twice, unless there is big problems at home or mental illness

        • Sansevieria

          The problem with arguing that it’s “common sense” is two-fold.

          (1) It’s based on OPINION and not FACT. “Opinion,” as defined by Google Dictionary, is “a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.” Fact, also as defined by Google Dictionary, is “a thing that is indisputably the case.” Until you can provide some verifiable evidence to support your OPINION that kids need to “get their ass busted” then it is only an opinion and not a fact.

          (2) Arguing that something is “common sense” is assuming that (a) it is the view supported by the majority of people, (b) that we’re just supposed to assume their right. The problem with this is that 1,000 years ago, it was considered “common sense” to assume the earth was flat, 500 years ago it was considered “common sense” to assume that anyone who was thought to be a witch or “heretic” by the majority should be burned at the stake, 200 years ago, it was considered “common sense” that people of certain skin tones be enslaved, 100 years ago it was considered “common sense” that women should not vote, and 50 years ago it was considered “common sense” that men be permitted to strike their wives whenever they felt it was necessary. Now, in 2016, people still assume it’s “common sense” to bust ass, as you so eloquently put it.

          Sweden has banned spanking since 1979, and crime is far lower there. http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Sweden/United-States/Crime

          They are also closing prisons due to a lack of people to put in them. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/sweden-closes-prisons-number-inmates-plummets

          If I were to apply your “common sense” argument, it would make “common sense” to me that (1) Sweden bans spanking, and (2) Sweden is closing prisons due to a lack of criminals.

          Applying “common sense” to the facts, busting ass still is verifiably not the way to go.

          Now, it’s totally fine to suggest that those factors concerning Sweden may be totally coincidental, but the same thing has been happening in other countries, too, (Netherlands and Germany to name a couple) too since the decline.

          You’ll have to come at me with much better than claiming that it’s “common sense” because that is not verifiable and requires us to assume that the majority is right. Often they’re not.

  • Mary

    All I’m going to say is if I found out a teacher put their hands on one of my children they better get ready to step to me because it would be ON. I am the parent, it is MY job to decide the appropriate punishment and it is the teachers job to educate according to the states standards. My two children are 4 and 7 and both are incredibly well behaved…have I spanked them? Sure, once or twice. While I don’t buy into the new age parenting nonsense (and I think the way society is in general gives testament to the term “nonsense”), I do believe that corporal punishment should be reserved only for situations that honestly call for it as it becomes ineffective (and in fact usually has the reverse of the desired intention) when it is used as the primary means of discipline.

    • Sansevieria

      Interesting how people want to blame everything wrong with society on a lack of corporal punishment, when (1) there are other factors, (2) society is actually improving, and (3) most criminals were spanked as kids, given that most people were.

      Do you have scientific proof to back up that everything wrong with society is our fault, or do you plan just to rely on opinion?

      • megarjohnson2

        You crazy, there is plenty of proof society is corrupt from school officials to police to politicians…

        • Sansevieria

          Okay, if there is “plenty of proof,” enlighten me. Where can I find this proof? Please provide some verifiable examples. Or did you just plan to rely on calling people crazy and never really show the proof you claim exists?

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