Corporal punishment consent form in schools

Paddling children by school officials -are you for it or against it? In other words, should school teachers be allowed to paddle your child when they act up and would you sign a form?    I asked this question to friends, school teachers, police officers, city employees, and family. Currently GCCISD does not paddle children for any reason.

The officially statement from GCCISD is as follows: “Statement from Dr. Cavazos: At the July 22 regular meeting of the Goose Creek CISD Board of Trustees, Board members approved the Parent/Student Handbook containing the Student Code of Conduct for the 2013-2014 school year to reflect revisions, including the elimination of the utilization of corporal punishment in Goose Creek CISD. Susan Passmore  Goose Creek CISD Publications Coordinator 281.420.4863”

Bert Marshall: I am pro-corporal punishment and believe the elimination of it from our schools will fuel unruly behavior amongst some of our students.

J. Dykehouse: Heck yes, and then I would get that hiney when they got home!!!!

R. Cabaniss: Nope I don't want them paddling my child.

C. Lopez: Yes, I would allow this.

D. Elliott: Yes.

V. Marcott: I did sign the forms, never had a problem , but I'm old school. I thought they abolished that in the school the last couple of years, I may be wrong.

D. Johanningsmeier: Yes, it worked before everyone became so sensitive, and look what its brought us in our current crop of adults. Mom to son: Tommy if you don't behave I'll not stop at McDonald's. Back in my prehistoric times, being grounded meant no outdoor play time, no TV (we only had one), and no fun activities. Then there was my dad to deal with.  You just learned quickly to stay out of trouble.

T. Wheeler: No! Schools don't use the best judgment when they discipline!

S. Geocacher:  Nope. I wouldn't sign one. There is no accurate way to meter the amount of force used from teacher to teacher. I will not allow a government employee to hit my kid. No sir.  There were no consent forms when I was a kid and I was unjustly paddled many times by a several sadistic teachers who took any opportunity to give a paddling no matter how small the infraction. My kid isn't going to have that experience. Discipline starts at home.

B. R. Pugh: Yes

P. R. Jett:  No. I reserve that punishment for us. I don't trust a stranger to beat my children. That has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether or not WE spank them. I'm not into absolving myself of parental duties by shifting that responsibility to a school administrator or teacher. Especially not when you hear so many stories of teachers having inappropriate relationships with students. Obviously not all of them have the best judgment or self control. I'm far more in favor of making parents responsible for their children. Make the parents financially responsible for their minor children and you see a lot less parenting failures.

Bruno  Marshall: I DID sign a form

K. Wade: I sign it every year and they still don't use it.

S. Liles: Yes. Schools are just asking consent to continue your responsibility that starts at home. You understand home fails all the time. The best children are the trouble magnets of all time. In the 60's it was normal for three swats with a paddle with holes in it.

A. Gaitorbate: I got paddled a lot. By the time I got into Jr. High it was my choice of punishment. It was my way of showing them they couldn't hurt me no matter how hard they hit me.

A. Barbee: I begged the principal of my daughter's elementary school, Alamo, to spank her as needed. I told them word-for-word "Spank her as hard as you can. I don't care as long as you don't draw blood. Bruises and red marks are okay." They acted as if I had shot their dog or something. I told them "If you don't spank her, she won't mind for you. And since I won't be there to make her behave for you, you gotta make her behave for you."

R. Fitts:  Yes; my Dad said if you get in trouble in school you will also be in trouble at home...worse paddling I got was in Alabama from elementary old woman principal, she bruised the heck of me and my parents went to school about that... so some in school system may not be the ones to issue the paddling... In other schools the coach handled the paddling .. and yes I got it at home... but most of the time I was a good student

S. Garcia:  Yes.  I've signed the form every single year for it.
Teacher's aren't allowed to hit the kids. They have to go to the office where the assistant principal or an administrator would be the one to do it. Well that's how it has been since my son has been in school (he is 15 now) society is too sensitive. And it's why we are were we are. It's a shame.

E. Caldwell: I paddled my kids when needed and it didn’t take to many swats to make the point with them....both my kids are a credit to me....I have always said "what you do is a direct reflection on me"...."I know that I have raised you right and you are going to show the world that i have"! I never signed yes on the paper from school....they are MY kids.

T. Cormier: School principals should. I also believe that parent should have to come get their children if they do not want them paddled. I also want a camera in my classroom so that when momma and daddy say," My baby said you are the problem. They said they didn't do anything. You are picking on my baby." I can then push rewind and say," Let's see your little angel in action as he completely disrupts my classroom and impedes the learning of others. Which, by the way, I can be held accountable for on the STAAR." Cameras protect the teacher and the student.  I've been hit, kicked, and spit on. There is no accountability for the students these days. My husband is urging me to switch careers.

J. and D. Hewett-Staner: I don't think it is wrong but just not for us.

D. Smith: Nothing like numb butt cheeks to sit on the rest of the day....and look, I turned out ok. Seriously, ALL of my swats I got because of the 'code of silence'...if nobody told on the guy who really DID it, EVERYBODY got one.

A. Tallant: BBISD offers it and I haves signed off for them to be popped but I have to be called first before it happens! Colton has received 2 pops over his 6 yrs at BBHSD !
I have to be notified beforehand. Thank God I haven't had that problem yet.

B. Prewitt: Worked for me, why not. As a child there is a thin line between fear and respect.

K. Winkelmann: I'm for it! There would be a stipulation though that I be called, this way they get it twice! I only got pops twice in school and got them twice at home once the call was made! But since this has been taken out of school there has been nothing but problems!

W. Hickman: Absolutely.

N. Rice:  No.

J. Gipson:  Pro paddling. It worked on me

P.Gramling: It worked when I was in school, so why not now. I am totally for it as long as they don't abuse it...pun intended. What they should be concentrating on are the bullying...cyber and physical.  What they should be concentrating on are the bullying...cyber and physical.

M. Abernathy-Fowler: I think the old fashion paddling idea of a ruler across the palm in front of students should be allowed. I received that from Coach Richardon in the 12th grade! I almost made it through without a record! LOL Of course sadly the generations in schools today come from broken homes, neglect or abuse. A teacher facing an older student and be so close would need to be on guard for instilled anger to lash back at them. I resigned the education field in 1996 and could see what was beginning to transpire before I ended that career.

T. Harvey-Jones: Would sign and have signed.

J. Connaly Jr: All for it, with rules of course. Bert, I was never a "teacher". I've had classrooms full of students though. After my 1st day of teaching, my thoughts were that if I ever see a former teacher I'd apologize profusely. I was fortunate enough to apologize to my high school AG teacher and my junior high art teacher. The school districts need to grow some and enforce the rules they already have. Teachers being assaulted by little kids is easily fixed. Sorry, your kid can't come to our schools. The police in the schools should be for security, not as enforcers. The administrators use them as muscle. Can we be anymore ridiculous?

L. Wong: My mother used chopsticks and my dad used his belt. I was a model student so never got into much trouble. I would think that paddling is reactive rather than being proactive with trying to motive kids in school. Maybe we need volunteer mentors.

M. Marshall:  Yes, it worked fine when I was a kid. That is when I wasn't being det.

C. Corbello: I used to say NO, till I had a problem child that would go to school giving the teachers' hell saying YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME,, lol,, so I told them to whoop his A** if he misbehaves,,, he minded after that,, haha

S. Melton: I was paddled often in elementary school (I know, shocker!) usually for very minor infractions but I don't really remember getting in trouble at home so I guess the school paddlings were enough for me. I find that now, the kids who really NEED the pops have the parents who won't allow the schools to give them and the parents who allow the school to give pops are already doing a good job of taking care of business at home before it comes to school punishment.

D. Thornton: I worked off and on adolescent psyche units and most of the brats we got were undisciplined little monsters with "ADD" or "oppositional disorders" ie; we don't discipline of pay any attention to them at home. You have limited success with these kids because they know that they can whine to their parents and things will be the same when they get home. Most of the so called parents are in total denial or are too afraid that they won't be their kids' "friend" anymore.  Oh, and the parents would actually have to give up time on their favorite hobbies, clubs and activities to actually spend time with their kids and parent. God forbid!   Our superintendent kept a paddle hanging in plain sight in his office. Was enough to keep us all in line.
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The looming Baytown metropolis

Get ready for Baytown to surge to 200,000 people over the next five years folks. What started out as a laid-back Tri-city community of Pelly, Baytown and Goose Creek is rapidly becoming a bustling metropolis, and oil fracking is to blame, if blame is levied. I see what is happening as a positive. Cars, trucks and motorcycles are on our streets at all hours of the day and night, and based on what one of our police lieutenants told me recently, we are not ready for the expansion. How could we be?

With the Exxon and Chevron Phillips expansions in progress, they will draw tens of thousands of workers to our city, and due to the length of the work commitment, most will bring their families. We have three new elementary schools popping up (expect new school zones of SH-146 out Pinehurst way and another on North Main street, which will impede traffic flow), and there is a new steel mill coming to the Beach City area, most likely at the U.S. Steel location. Kiwi Golf is opening a production facility here. There is the Buc-ee’s and the new super Wal-mart at Highway 146 and Interstate 10 to bring jobs and more people and cars/trucks to our streets. I predict the traffic jam will be so bad here that the state will build an overpass over I-10 that will run for a number of miles dumping traffic out past Maranatha Temple.

 The good side is we have jobs, lots of jobs, and I welcome this with a big toothy grin – well with what teeth I still have anyway. After 36 years in the petrochemical field, I never thought I would see such a boom in this arena. I suspected it, however, and a couple years ago foretold the need for skilled workers when Goose Creek Memorial was being built. I wrote here in The Baytown Sun in my old column – yes, I am back – that we should seriously consider converting Robert E. Lee High School into a top notch vo-tech school to prepare our graduates to enter the work force and unfortunately, this is the bad side of the expansion. We don’t have the local manpower to staff these great jobs. We are at a minimum two years behind, and many of these great jobs won’t go to our young graduates but to people flocking here from the Virgin Islands, Detroit or Timbuktu, and they will most likely not leave.

When I pushed for a vo-tech (instead of 3 high schools teaching the same thing) , all everyone wanted to talk about was the school colors and the football team. So, we continued to pump out graduates, or not – with cookie-cutter diplomas which basically prepared them to think alike and exit high school with the skills to get a job working the counter at a fast food restaurant, or a few went off to college and became what their parents dreamed of, right? For most, the answer was no. They languished and years later are still without money-making skills. Well, now we need those high school grads with those hands-on skills and they are nowhere to be found because we didn’t properly prepare them for the real working world. Sure, Lee College and San Jac offer a two-year program to qualify people to become process technicians, I understand that. But what about electricians, pipe-fitters, welders, insulators, rod-busters, riggers, plumbers, instrument technicians, carpenters, heavy equipment operators, etc, who could have graduated from one of our high schools with the needed skills? It’s not too late to amp up our vo-tech high school programs, folks. It just takes forward paradigm-breaking thinking. It will take people on our school board to break free of the current malaise and get a curriculum that will teach our young generation to work …

Oops, isn’t work a four-letter word these days? It appears to be to many of us gray heads who began working at 13 and 14 years of age and never looked to anyone for assistance. Oh my, this is so controversial, I almost can’t write it without feeling there will be a terrible backlash. But it’s true just the same, and I will bring it out in the open. After all, I bought my first car at the ripe age of 15 after working for two years. I also bought my first radio, and stereo and television … We have a terrific future here in Baytown, both in our city’s development and the sustainable job market. We, as Baytonians, need to take advantage of it and prepare our kids to get a piece of the pie. I am close to retirement and I have no plans to move away, but I do care that our city “moves forward” with the surging expansion. On another note, I am very excited about our city park expansions and have asked the mayor and city manager to plant as many trees and native shrubs as possible to off-set the wholesale defoliation of our city caused by the expansion.

The Baker Road extension alone destroyed many acres of wildlife habitat, and my councilman, Bob Hoskins, has promised a new greenbelt, with him personally planting the first tree. I am very excited about this and the great job Scott Johnson is doing with our parks department. Baytown is indeed on the move, but it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure our city moves in the right direction. I want to do my part, how about you?