School Board 'should be commended' for eliminating paddling

Editor:

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The Dec. 14 editorial taking the Columbia County School Board to task for dropping a corporal punishment policy off the books after it hadn't been used in years was the reverse of what the paper should have done.

Instead, the district educators should be congratulated for educating local children without hitting them with boards, and for doing so before being instructed to do so by school board action. And the board should be commended for now making it official policy that students will be educated without fear of being hit.

Educators in 29 states, 109 counties and thousands of local boards like Columbia County are aware of the research showing the harm of school paddlings, the legal risks and the positive benefits of using more humane methods of classroom management.

The newspaper's ire should be directed toward the Georgia state Legislature, which lags behind the nation on these issues, and should make Georgia the 30th state to ban paddling.

Robert Fathman, president

National Coalition to Abolish Corporal Punishment in Schools