Uh oh, spankers, uh oh!

Seems that yet another state has moved a giant step toward
civilization:

More From The Patriot-News

CAPITOL
Board approves ban on spanking
Friday, October 07, 2005
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News

Despite what Bart Simpson might say, repetitive writing of sentences on
the blackboard -- as seen at the beginning of every episode of "The
Simpsons" -- is not corporal punishment. Neither is running an extra
lap around the track or standing in a corner.

But swatting a kid's bottom is, and that form of discipline is on its
way to being outlawed in Pennsylvania public schools.

The Independent Regulatory Review Commission yesterday voted 5-0 to add
Pennsylvania to the list of 28 other states that ban corporal
punishment in public schools.

The regulations don't take effect until they are published in the
Pennsylvania Bulletin, which State Board of Education executive
director Jim Buckheit said could happen by the end of next month.

The Bulletin is the state's official publication for information and
new regulations.

State Board of Education member Edith Isacke, who led the campaign for
the corporal punishment ban, was pleased by the commission's unanimous
vote.

The Legislature still could block the ban from taking effect, and
Isacke said, "I won't breathe of sigh of relief until they are
published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin."

The commission-approved regulations bar educators from using physical
discipline that causes pain and fear, but would permit school officials
to defend themselves.

At present, only 18 districts -- none in the midstate -- in
Pennsylvania use corporal punishment, Isacke said.

The House Education Committee last week urged the regulatory review
commission to disapprove the regulations. Legislators argued that
removing this classroom-management option would tie teachers' hands.

But Carol Karl of the Pennsylvania State Education Association told the
commission yesterday that teachers don't want that tool.

School psychologists warn against using corporal punishment, and school
nurses say it violates their responsibility to care for children, she
said. And the education association's lawyers "believe that there's a
legal vulnerability for both the teacher ... and the school if they
participate in striking the student in school," Karl said.

Despite questions raised by the House Education Committee and the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association about whether the State Board
has the authority to impose such a ban, the commission's counsel, Mary
Wyatte, said she believed it did.

So did Millersville University's psychology department chair Helena
Tuleya-Payne, speaking for the Pennsylvania Psychologists Association.

"The provision in the special-education regulations did and will do
more to reduce corporal punishment in the schools than anything that
IRRC does today," she said.

"As you know, some children in special education have behavior problems
that are very difficult to manage. However, they can be managed and
indeed thrive in school without corporal punishment. So can students in
regular education."

JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriot...230.xml&coll=1