Parenting & kids - Rev. Sagendorf's Letter to the Editor

The Reverend Dr. Thomas E. Sagendorf
1580 Lane 201, Ball Lake, Hamilton, IN 46742
Email:

March 28, 2004

Letters to the Editor
Indianapolis Star
307 N. Pennsylvania St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Editor:

We've come a long way since the dark ages. It's no longer OK for
husbands to beat their wives. It's no longer OK for nursing homes to tie
people in bed. It's no longer OK to kick the family dog when you're
angry. But six little boys can be beaten with a board by school officials
in Indianapolis, and we're supposed to say that this is OK because it's
"discipline."

But it's not discipline and it's not OK! It's assault and battery!
It's human depravity! People who do this to children should be charged,
convicted, and sent to jail. Let them take their penchant for violence to
the prison environment and see how far they get.

The practice of paddling is a moral disgrace. It doesn't teach values
or discipline. Instead, it fosters anger, dread, depression, and very
often rebellion. Paddling is not necessary to maintain a positive school
setting. Thousands of schools across the country are able to provide
quality education in an ordered environment without doing physical
violence to children. Paddling, on the contrary, simply provides safe
haven for teachers and administrators who are violent, incompetent, and
often emotionally disturbed.

If the Indiana legislature has any moral courage, it will outlaw this
Neanderthal practice and make it a crime for adults to beat children in
the schools. If it's not OK for husbands to beat wives, for nursing homes
to tie people in bed, for people to abuse animals, it's also not OK for
school officials to take out their aggressions on children with a wooden
paddle.

Yours truly,

The Rev. Thomas E. Sagendorf