LA: Legislator pushes school paddling ban

By Robb Hays
Posted: June 5, 2009 04:56 PM EDT
Updated: June 5, 2009 05:38 PM EDT
http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=10486901&nav=menu57_2

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - A Louisiana state legislator wants to see paddling and other forms of corporal punishment banned in public schools across the state.

House Bill 571, by Representative Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, calls for the practice of corporal punishment to become illegal beginning next school year.

Norton says the state has no tracking system in place to see which students are being paddled and how often. She says there is no way to know whether students are being paddled from one year to the next.

"If the state would introduce a tracking system, they would know it's not working," Norton said.

Norton maintains that if corporal punishment was working, the same children would not be getting paddled again and again - something she maintains is taking place.

"The school system was built on educating children, not raising them," Norton said. "If you do what you're supposed to do at home, we wouldn't have to be raising them in schools."

Norton's legislation is scheduled to be brought up for debate at noon on Tuesday June 9th before the House Committee on Education. Norton is planning to hold a rally in favor of her bill on the capitol steps at 11am that morning.