School responds to peaceful protest students with a good old fashioned swatting to their thighs ?

Parents need to respond with a good old fashioned law suit and maybe even criminal assault charges.
What barbaric practice. Disgusting.

originally posted by: cosmickat
a reply to: kaylaluv

Thank you for replying. I am right with you on " real world consequences "
Can you imagine if the power companies did come at us with a " switch " if we are late paying the bill ?
Ridiculous.

They do...it's called the off switch

originally posted by: cosmickat
a reply to: NerdGoddess

Thanks for replying.
I think the consequence they suffered was a breach of procedure...specifically they neglected to obtain permission to walk out for 17 minutes to support the protest. So yeah..their choice was between swatting or suspension.
They seemed to have failed by not first obtaining permission to exercise their 1st Amendment.
I would agree that if it is your choice to spank / swat / smack....fair enough....your kids..your job to parent..your choice.
But the thought of another adult spanking or hitting a child makes me cringe.

I understand, my father was an alcoholic and beat me mercilessly from the time i was 12 until the day I turned 18.
That's really the root behind why I'm so mixed on it. I didn't die, i can recall a few times looking back where I think his spanking was justified but that was when I was very young - but I'm pretty messed up mentally, and am left to undo all the damage by my own accord. Physical violence can be incredibly damaging to children so I totally respect why you are against it.

Thanks for explaining that they needed to request permission from the school first, I didn't know that but it makes perfect sense.

-Alee

a reply to: Sillyolme

Did you read the story? Do you realize that the children had a choice to take suspension over the swatting? Do you realize that the parents had to approve the punishment before it was carried out? Do you understand that at least one of the kids--the one who made a statement on the incident--respects those involved, understands that it was policy, and that he acknowledges that it was just a little sting on his thigh with no lasting injury?

Let's not over-react to this--it's not like they are putting these children in an iron maiden, or having them drawn and quartered. THOSE were barbaric practices. This was a punishment opted for by the kids involved that resulted in a little temporary sting.

a reply to: cosmickat


when you primarily engage with the people that support your opinion of the article, rather than engage with the people that disagreed with your opinion in a respectful manner (nobody expects people to engage the trolls though we all fall for it on occasion.) it gives the appearance of seeking validation rather than discussion.


Calling it a Barbaric punishment when it was only 2 swats on the thighs, and it was chosen by the student and ok'd by the parents is an expression of outrage in my opinion.

ETA: if the school had chosen the punishment without consulting the parents or the student the outrage would be justified, but it still would not be barbaric in my opinion.

So one school did this.

There's another story about kids from a school trashing a Walmart during their "gun protest".

These are extremes, just let both stories go and don't paint your world view on them.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Then it’s okay for a police officer to take a stick and bang it a few times on your legs for not making a complete stop at that stop sign. Oh, and let’s not even talk about when you argue with someone over a parking space. After all, decisions have consequences.

Violence is never the answer.

If a teacher hit my child, they wouldn't be teaching for much longer.

I mean, they wouldn't be talking for a few months either. Shattered jaws can make that difficult.

a reply to: Sillyolme

So if the parents agreed and the student agreed to this punishment over ISS, what exactly would be the basis for the lawsuit?


Please enlighten me...

a reply to: kaylaluv

When you don’t make your car payment, does the loan company come and punch you a few times? No, they take your car away from you. When you don’t make your house payment, does the bank come over and kick your butt? Nope, they will foreclose on you and kick you out of your home.

You got to ask yourself , which one hurts worse ?
Didnt think that one through very well , did you ?

a reply to: NightFlight

Hi
Being brought up in a stern scottish / irish family, slaps and whacks to the head were the norm. And once you had that happen a few times the threat of a " good hiding " in itself would have been enough to make you think twice...but if whatever you had in mind was worth a slap you would do it anyway. But anyway most of the time there was no warning it was coming.... it was still delivered immediately if any of us kids stepped over the line. I don't harbour any blame towards my parents at all...because they were brought up the exact same way. It was all they knew.
Never did them any harm...and so why would they worry about using the same parenting methods with their own kids ?
Same with our schools. The teachers used leather straps which they kept in their desks. The really sadistic ones hung them on the classroom wall.
Woe betide anyone who was late to class..forgot homework..or was talking at the back of the class. The teacher would march you down to the front of the classroom...you would hold out your arms in front of you palms up and receive your punishment in full view of your fellow students. Again this was the norm. No special dispensation or agreement from parents was required. Most times if you informed your parents you had been belted at school, you would get a second dose from your mother too !
Were we respectful..yes of course.
Did we still get into mischief...hell yeah. We were kids..we messed up. Sometimes on purpose. We knew what the consequences were if we got caught. It didn't deter us.

a reply to: Gothmog

I thought through it quite well, thanks. There are consequences to making poor decisions, but violence shouldn’t be one of them. It’s illegal for the bank to come to your home and beat you for not making your mortgage payment. It’s illegal for a reason.

a reply to: kaylaluv

If you think that violence is never the answer, you've never been attacked by a violent person before.

Also, you're making a false equivocation with your police hypothetical, so it's not worth discussion. This is school policy, the kids and parents had a choice, and there had to be another school official present to ensure that the punishement was not 'excessive or done with malicious intent.'

Barbaric is not the correct word, and your tendency to conflate completely difference scenarios to try and produce counterpoints does your argument no favors.

You don't have to like the punishment choice--that's fine, but don't misrepresent the incident as if it's tantamount to police brutality or two people ganging up on another over a public parking space.

originally posted by: Dem0nc1eaner
If a teacher hit my child, they wouldn't be teaching for much longer.

I mean, they wouldn't be talking for a few months either. Shattered jaws can make that difficult.

Calm down--another instance of not reading the story, too?

The parents can both opt-out of corporal punishment outright AND they have to approve the punishment prior to it being administered.

But do you see the irony in your comment? This is about the appropriateness (or inappropriateness) of using "violence" to punish some kids protesting violence, and your reaction is to threaten more violence?

What an utterly silly way to approach this topic.

a reply to: Irishhaf

You must have not read all of my replies. My first and most revisited engagement was with a member who has a completely different opinion.

What I referenced as barbaric was not this specific event..rather the whole beating of kids in general.

The OP..or so I thought...I had written as a reference to the irony if the event.

Again I am not outraged ...irony makes me go hmmmm as opposed to AGhhhhhh!!!

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Gothmog

I thought through it quite well, thanks. There are consequences to making poor decisions, but violence shouldn’t be one of them. It’s illegal for the bank to come to your home and beat you for not making your mortgage payment. It’s illegal for a reason.

Yet another poorly derived scenario that is not the same as the one in the OP.

And yes, there is a reason that it's illegal--because there are laws that prohibit such activity. There are also laws that allow corporal punishment in Alabama schools.

There is a reason that it's legal and not even remotely similar to all of the hypotheticals that you keep providing in this thread.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

No, I don’t like the punishment choice. It represents poor parenting skills, and bad policy by the school. Some parents don’t know better, but the school should.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

There is no valid reason for corporal punishment in schools being legal, any more than there is a valid reason for corporal punishment from mortgage companies being legal.

We just have this stupid cultural idea that hitting a kid is the best way of teaching them a lesson. That cultural idea made it legal. Doesn’t make it any less stupid.

a reply to: cosmickat


I fully admit when getting the proper context of the written word in a free form format such as ATS I sometimes miss the mark.

I still do not think the punishment was out of line, since parents and students agreed.

originally posted by: kaylaluv
a reply to: Gothmog

I thought through it quite well, thanks. There are consequences to making poor decisions, but violence shouldn’t be one of them. It’s illegal for the bank to come to your home and beat you for not making your mortgage payment. It’s illegal for a reason.

You forget ...
Breaking rules , laws are bad. Poor decisions or not. A person takes a chance they will not get caught . All these students had to do was let the school officials know where they were going. Betchya they didnt actually go there , either. Some school officials were probably there calling role.

I understand it is very difficult to get the idea of rule or law breaking is bad to certain types of liberals.
Been there , done that , got the scars and tiedied T-Shirts to prove it.
Everything has it's consequences in life . Everything.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Thanks.
Yeah they all agreed to it. They knew that they hadn't the correct permission.
I was struck by the irony.
Still am.