Fifteen States Still Keep the Wooden Paddle in the Classroom, Leaving Thousands of Students Vulnerable to What Experts Call State-Sanctioned Trauma
Using power to weaponize shame.
Fifteen states still allow school officials to paddle students, leaving thousands of children vulnerable to what experts call state-sanctioned trauma. According to NPR, as of August 2026, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and 12 other states have no statewide ban on corporal punishment in public schools, meaning the decision is left to local districts.
The most recent federal data from the 2021-2022 school year shows nearly 32,000 reported incidents of paddling or spanking in K-12 classrooms, with the vast majority happening in Southern states. Tessa Davis, a mother in Arkansas, still regrets the day she allowed her son to be paddled in kindergarten. She got a call from his school outside Little Rock after he grabbed a girl’s jacket in the cafeteria.
The school gave her two choices: a three-day suspension or a paddling. Davis couldn’t afford to miss work, so she and her husband agreed to the paddling. “I just remember feeling like instant regret,” she said. Afterward, her son became terrified of school. “I mean he struggled before, but afterwards I felt like, especially in that building, he was always more tense, more aware and afraid,” Davis recalled.
The experience changed how she and her husband discipline their children
They no longer use corporal punishment at home or allow it at school, and Davis now advocates against it publicly. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry defines corporal punishment as anything done to cause pain or discomfort in response to a child’s behavior. In schools, that usually means paddling. Psychologists overwhelmingly agree that corporal punishment is harmful.
Joan Durrant, a child developmental psychologist in Canada, said it doesn’t work the way parents and educators hope. “It really fuels dishonesty,” she said. “You learn how to lie. You learn to avoid punishment.” Research shows it can increase aggressive behavior, erode relationships, and lead to anxiety, depression, and even addiction. Durrant emphasized that the negative impacts are well-documented and backed by hundreds of studies.
Despite the research, some educators and psychologists still defend the practice. Randy Randleman, a licensed psychologist in Oklahoma, believes corporal punishment can be a useful tool for schools. “I’ve worked in over 150 small schools in Oklahoma,” he said. “I go out here every day and I see there’s a small group of kids that, if they knew they would get a paddling – oh, [the misbehavior is] done.”
Randleman said he considers it a last resort for students making conscious choices to misbehave. He opposes bans on corporal punishment, even for students with disabilities, arguing that schools are at a disadvantage when children know they can’t be spanked. However, he acknowledged that physical discipline can go too far, pointing to a 2025 incident in Mississippi where a school staffer broke a student’s arm during a paddling.
‘The fact that we can paddle, I think, is a great deterrent to a lot of kids’
In Oklahoma, Warner Public Schools is one of the districts that still allows corporal punishment. Superintendent David Vinson said the threat of a paddling alone is often enough to curb unwanted behavior. “The fact that we can paddle, I think, is a great deterrent to a lot of kids,” he said.
The district serves about 860 students, most from low-income households, and many are Native American. Elementary school principal Alan Gordon, who is Cherokee, said students know about his two paddles, named Peace and Harmony. “The shop teacher made my paddles for me,” Gordon said. “He made me two identical paddles and all my kids, they know, ‘Oh, we don’t want to see Peace and Harmony.’”
Gordon said a student only receives a paddling after multiple office visits and lunch detentions for the same infraction. Parents must authorize corporal punishment at the beginning of the school year, and Gordon calls them before paddling a student, even if they’ve previously told him to “just swat them.”
During the paddling, he tells students to focus on a poster that reads, “Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” Afterward, he often gives them a hug and tells them they’re loved. “I think people need to understand this: We are not over here advocating for you to beat your child,” Gordon said. “I think that the responsible use of discipline can change kids’ lives.”
The debate over corporal punishment isn’t just happening in rural districts
Click2Houston reports that in Texas, Noah Lopez, a sophomore at Memorial High School in Port Arthur, said he was paddled by his football coach during practice after missing school and wearing the wrong pants. Lopez said the coach hit him three times, even though he thought it would only be once.
“It’s already embarrassing I’m getting hit,” Lopez said. His father, Henry Lopez, said the school should have called him first. “The way they did it, you know, it was like an assault,” he said. “You know, they didn’t let me know. I don’t even whoop with my son.”
Port Arthur ISD allows corporal punishment under its current policy, but parents must opt out in writing if they don’t want it used on their children. The district is reviewing the incident involving Lopez and will reconsider its policy. Superintendent Dr. Mark Porterie said the district is committed to maintaining appropriate student discipline while ensuring practices are fair and consistent.
Meanwhile, Lopez has decided to move in with his father in Conroe and enroll in a different school. “I’m already a sophomore, I only have two more years left,” he said. “This is really messing up my football dream.”
(Featured image: Mikhail Nilov on Pexels)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Follow The Mary Sue:
