Spanker protection bill dies in Senate
 

Spanker protection bill dies in Senate
By DION LEFLER, Eagle Topeka bureau,Wichita Eagle, February 20, 2007

The bill's author, Sen. Phil Journey, concedes his effort to protect
educators who spank students hasn't garnered much support.

TOPEKA - A bill to make it easier to spank kids in school is facing
suspension in the state Senate.

The chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, Jean Schodorf, R-
Wichita, and the bill's author, Phil Journey, R-Haysville, said they
think the bill is done for, at least for the current session.

Senate Bill 280 would have shielded educators from liability for
administering corporal punishment and would have established
guidelines for spanking in schools.

Current law allows spanking if the local school board approves it by
policy, but officials say corporal punishment is seldom used.

Schodorf said she allowed a hearing on the bill as a courtesy to
Journey, but added: "I didn't see any enthusiasm to move it from the
committee."

"I think it's dead," Journey said after the hearing.

Because of its subject matter, the bill was one of the more closely
watched ideas to emerge in the current legislative session. Journey
said he received calls from media from as far away as Iran.

It was also, according to Journey, "the most misunderstood bill filed
this session."

"If you read the (newspaper) editorials, you'd think I wanted every
child in the state to be spanked," Journey said. "Nothing could be
further from the truth."

Journey told the committee that state law is largely silent on the
issue of corporal punishment, leaving it up to individual school
districts to decide. That could mean teachers in Kansas are not
protected by a federal liability shield law, he said.

He said he's also talked to teachers who are leaving the profession,
despite a growing teacher shortage, because of inadequate discipline
in schools.
Kansas National Education Association and Families United for
Education, urged the committee to gut the bill and replace it with a
statewide ban on school spanking.

Opponents of the bill, including the Kansas National Education
Association and Families United for Education, urged the committee to
gut the bill and replace it with a statewide ban on school spanking.

Kathy Cook of Families United called spanking "ineffective" and said
it sends children a message that using violence to solve problems is
OK.

And KNEA lobbyist Mark Dessetti testified that association teachers
have rejected corporal punishment in 10 separate votes since 1979.

He also said he thinks corporal punishment is irrelevant to teacher
recruitment and retention.

"Nobody's going to become a teacher because they have the opportunity
to whip kids," he said. Reach Dion Lefler at 785-296-3006.