My dad said when he was in school they actually used to get spankings with wooden paddles.. was this legal?

Question

And he sad some of the paddles were as long as 2 feet or more long and had as many as 30 or more holes in them to make the sting and cause blisters....I find this hard to believe...did anyone else experience this?

I cannot imagine this being legal and i can't imagine holes causing blisters and welts..think he is telling a tale.

Answer 1

I went to a Catholic school, and had what was called the Dean of Discipline. I never saw it, but he had a paddle with holes drilled in it. I guess that makes it easier to swing. :-? lol

Answer 2

Some of what he is saying is true. A school district near me (in oklahoma city) is still allowed to paddle kids, with the parents permission. The can't leave welts or break the skin, but it would still sting. I think all schools should be allowed to paddle the kids. There needs to be a better form of punishment, cause it's obviouse that detention doesn't work!!

Answer 3

Yes it was, and sometimes teachers even went beyond what was legal, because parents were too scared to challenge the system. I had a 7th grade science teacher who not only used the wooden paddle for discipline, but also as a teaching tool as well. He would, on occasion, call one of us up to the board, ask us a question, and then, if we didn't get it right, SWAT!! I found from a High School teacher two years later that what this guy was doing was against the law, but no parent ever challenged him on it. Ironically, I recently heard the guy's wife divorced him a few years ago because of domestic violence. I was not the least bit surprised.

Answer 4

Yep, it was even in public schools. It's only with in the last 20 years that spanking with or without paddles became illegal in most states. I think it may still be legal in some, but I'm not sure about that. The principal that was there for the first few years I was in school had a red paddle in her desk drawer. I never saw it but other kids swore they did.

My dad said if you were hit by the teacher you wouldn't dare go home and tell your parents or you'd be hit again. They figured if she hit you, you deserved it, which was true in most cases. A few sadistic nuts spoiled it for everybody else, which is usually the case in everything.

Answer 5

yes you can imagine a lot of things but back in the day it was not only legal but many parents encouraged it. such as my own. I got my butt beat in school many times with everything from ping pong paddles. to the paddle i had to make in shop not being any shorter than 2 1/2 feet long 4 inches wide with no less than 15 holes in it. and yes i got graded on the paddle too. while in sixth grade, i got my butt beat every morning by the school Principal every day from Christmas till the end of the year because i refused to write the rules of the bus 100 times (didn't hurt, he was old)

Answer 6

It happened. I went to school at the time this happened. I got a paddling for smoking. I got a paddling for talking in class also. It was the big wooden paddles. It was legal because our parents signed release forms giving the school permission to do this. I never got a paddling from a paddle with holes though. I think they reserved those for the boys.

Answer 7

I think your dad may have exagerated a bit unless he had some real mean teachers who went alittle too far.

And yes there was what was called corporal punishment that was legal for teachers to use in the classroom. It was used primarily to deter unrespectablity of disruptions in a class room. If a student was given corporal punishment there was a very good reason for it and most students never fell out of line for fear of it.

You as a student are in that classroom to learn, not play games or disrupt the class for any reason intrusive or that interferes with the teacher teaching you.
The teacher is there being paid to teach you, but how can they teach if there is a child disrupting what they are trying to teach you?
I was and still am a firm believer of the corporal punishment back in what you might call the old days and it's a shame that it is not still used today.
Respect your elders and they in turn they will respect you.

Answer 8

This is still legal in most places. Some individual school districts out law it though. Most don't do it for liability reasons, don't want parents to sue. I remember kids getting spanked until I was in the 2nd grade (1982). I don't know about the welts, etc. That's probably a tale.

Answer 9

Yes, it was legal, and there were no guns in schools then either!

I was even wrongly "paddled" for something I didn't do. It was the humiliation that was the worst, but looking at schools now?

I'd take that spanking all over again! Everyday for the whole school year! If it meant that school students were made to be children again, instead of "condom-toting hookers and gigolos"

Answer 10

I thought the holes were to minimize wind resistance as the teacher swung the paddle.

And yes, schools beating kids was entirely legal and widespread. Especially the religious schools. And since the religious are the last to conform to new ideas, they were the last to let go of corporal punishment in school.

There were a lot of things that in the past were the norm but are completely opposite of currently acceptable behavior. Corporal punishment, older guys marrying girls as young as 12 (possibly younger), smoking in restaurants, etc.

There's a good chance that something that we do today is going to be seen by future generations as unthinkable and barbaric.

Answer 11

yep, it was not only legal, it was used liberally as needed to keep bullies in place and enforce school discipline. I never had more than about 6 licks at a time in my elementary and jr. high school.

Ya know what as well? We didn't have the discipline problems of today, the drug problems, the drinking problems, and the pregnancy problems. Clothes were modest, classrooms were for teaching and back talk and cussing wasn't allowed.

We also had the Bible and prayer daily.

Funny how things change to give people "rights" and how it creates so many wrongs.