Dear Alabama,
I see today that girls who wore dresses that violate your dress code were subjected either to suspensions or “corporal punishment.” I’m writing to ask if you have thought this through. You let grown adults spank young teenager women for being too sexy? I’m going to spare you the feminist parsing of this sexualized violence against these girls (others will get to it I’m sure). Let’s just stick to the obvious.
You let grownups touch the asses of girls you’ve identified as too sexy?
Let me repeat, you have grownups in your school systems who will willingly touch the asses of underage girls as punishment for them being too sexy.
I hope you are setting aside some taxpayer dollars for when the sex scandals come out.
I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to realize any adult who willingly wants to smack the ass of a teenager is someone you need to keep an eye on.
Obviously.
Deeply Concerned about Your Hiring Practices,
Aunt B.
Tiny Cat Pants 
In my AL High School, corporal punishment involved a wooden “paddle” (1″ thick board with holes drilled in it, and a carved handle). If that school is like mine, there wasn’t any hand-on-bum touching. Yes, it still sucks in many ways.
Still…and maybe even worse…ritualized ass-whacking for the sexy girls? If they filmed it and sold it, it would be a way out of Alabama’s perennial problem of providing sufficient money for their school systems.
Ha, ha! I’m an Alabama high school graduate, and I’m kind of surprised to hear that they still use corporal punishment in the public schools. It seems to open them up to all kinds of lawsuits. Of course, they were still practicing corporal punishment when I was a high school student, although as a goody-goody, I never experienced it myself. But from what I understand, paddling was done with a wooden paddle, not bare hands.
I did catch our assistant principal, the one who meted out punishments, leering at me suggestively many times. I guess it’s a good thing that my behavior was so exemplary that he never had an excuse to lay a hand or paddle on my ass! I have the distinct feeling he wanted to, though.
I don’t agree with corporal punishment in schools. But after three years experience teaching a dual-credit class in a public school, we need some way to put discipline back in the schools. Students and parents run schools and in many cases, they are amok. I was shocked at the manner in which students spoke to me and other instructors and that their parents most often supported them against the instructor without finding out what had actually taken place.
But, there is no way that I would want to participate in spanking students for dressing sexy, or spank any students. However, are we sure they did the spanking the same day as the offense? I was spanked a number of times in high school and it was usually days after what happened after a review and with permimssion of parents.
Moreover, are we sure it is a man that does the spanking? I’m not at all arguing with your point, and I’ve seen some male coaches and instructors be pretty lewd in regards to female students. Disgusting!
I’m reserving judgement until the movie comes out.
Kids who are at the senior prom could be 18 years old. Wouldn’t smacking an 18 year old be assault?
This makes me feel pretty good about leaving Alabama twenty years ago. Not that Texas is much better in some respects. I’m betting our schools would lean away from corporal punishment for fear that the students are packing heat.
By the way, if you want to be outraged on this subject, what about this fac: 32 states set the age of consent at 16. Tennessee is 18. For once, we are ahead of much on the country on a social issue. To be fair, some of those states have graduated limits on adults, such as having a higher age of consent for people over 25 enganging in sex with a young person.
I went to a religious school that used corporal punishment.
For the most pat, my many paddlings were (usually) meted out by a female teacher or gym instructor. Sometimes there would be a witness, and I vaguely remember that sometimes the witness was male.
The paddling was very ritualized. You were told to go to a chair and bend over the arm, holding onto the opposite arm. Your crime would then be explained to you, and you would have to count the number of “licks” administered with the paddle (usually your standard issue wooden paddle, or wooden with holes drilled in).
I was never injured by this process, but my older sister (who is very tiny, about 5’1″) was “clipped.” This is where the paddler turns their wrist during the swing and “clips” you with the edge of the paddle instead of the flat side. She got paddled because she was chewing gum in class and as she had a track meet that afternoon, couldn’t serve detention. She was then forced to run in a track meet, which was more like limping, and my mother took her to the hospital. She had such severe bruising that she required pain management, and didn’t get her mobility back for almost a week. So anyone reading this who administers a school, corporal punishment is NOT safe.
my school doesn’t allow corporal punishment without parental consent
Maybe this is extreme naivete, but I thought corporal punishment was illegal? If it’s not, it certainly should be.
Wow. At my high school, they just made you put your gym clothes (embarrassing enough!) on if you were deemed to be wearing something too revealing. That is really messed up, even for the land of Britney Spears.
I’ve been blissfully unaware that any school still metes out corporal punishment. I think that’s nuts. Backward. And also an assault.
There was a story in the City Paper about it a few weeks back. Corporal punishment is legal in TN and most districts haven’t ruled it out as an option. IMO it gets really sticky when you try and discipline a teen nearly an adult that way.
I was under the impression corporal punishment was a ruler to the palms of the hands. Or maybe that’s just in other countries.
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