MalloryKeaton

http://www.click2houston.com/educati...62/detail.html

First-Grader Suspended Because Mom Wouldn't Spank Him

Updated: 8:51 am CST March 7, 2005
Schaumburg, Ill. -- The mother of a 6-year-old boy who attended Schaumburg Christian School in Illinois said school officials suspended him from first grade Wednesday because she refused to spank him for disciplinary reasons.

Michelle Fallaw-Gabrielson said she was called to the school because her son, Chandler, was talking too much in class, chewing gum and bringing toys to school.
"The administrator ... called me outside her office and said that it needed to be handled. I said, 'OK, when I take him home, I'll use my form of discipline,' and she said, 'No, either you go inside my office and spank him, or I am suspending him from school for a day,'" Fallaw-Gabrielson said.

"At that point, my eyes filled with tears and I said, 'I guess he's just suspended for the day,'" she said.Fallaw-Gabrielson said she withdrew Chandler from the school the next day.School officials defended the decision because parent-administered corporal punishment is clearly outlined in the school guidelines; something that parents must sign off on.

"I bring it to their attention because I want them to know about this before I enroll their child. I tell them that if their child ever gets in this position that they have an option. They do not have to spank -- it's their choice," school administrator Randy Thaxton said.

Fallaw-Gabrielson said she did not sign the agreement because she does not believe in spanking. She said she will home school Chandler for the rest of the school year and enroll him in an Aurora, Ill., school after the summer.

"I put my son there for academic reasons, for moral structure. I didn't put my son there to be told I had to enforce corporal punishment on him," Fallaw-Gabrielson said.

The school's policy is highly unusual, but experts say it's legal. Illinois law bans corporal punishment in public schools, but the law doesn't apply to private schools.

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.

Lain

I believe there are some private schools that use some sort of punishment like whallop you with the yardstick. Or at least that's what I heard. But still...this is just...off. I mean, the boy gets suspended just because his mom wouldn't spank him in the office! Jeez! What is this, a peep show?!?

Thank God she pulled him out of that school. I would go nuts if that happened to me.

TokyoNiGHTS

Between this and orgys going on in the other private school, public schools aren't looking so bad.

Galaxia21

This is a crock of ****.

No school can make you spank your son if you don't want to. Some people are opposed to spanking their children or they feel that they will decide what qualifies for a spanking.

If I got called to my son's school with someone telling me he would be suspended if I didn't spank him (and I didn't think he deserved it AND I wouldn't do it in their office neither, you have the right to decide when and where) I would go off. No one better dare try to tell a parent what do do with their children. I'd probably knock the teacher/principal the hell out.

No1important

Nobody deserves to get hit period. Why American schools still allow this is beyond me. You can't hit a dog or a prisoner but it is ok for a big person to hit a child.....right It is time for this archiac practice to end.

All "spanking" does is teach people if they are smaller than you it is ok to hit them. No wonder America is such a violent country. If Spanking was banned like most civilized countries, Americas domestic violence would decrease as well, but with the Religious Majority running the show, that ain't gonna change. They say King Solomon said "spare the rod, spoil the child" yet King Solomon was a polygamist but you don't see men with multiple wives. They just pick and choose conveinent parts of the Bible that suit there own needs.

Of course along with Somolia, America is the only country not to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child , great company America keeps. That could explain why America's agression in the world. http://www.ohchr.org/english/countri...ication/11.htm
http://nospank.net/uncrc.htm

Patricia R. Robinson's letter to the editor
The Enquirer-Journal, February 12, 2005

We need violence out of education. If we have learned nothing from the Columbine, CO incident, it is doomed to repeat itself. If the teachers and guardians of children can not premeditatively demonstrate and model an ability to effectively solve problems without resorting to violence, how can we expect our children to learn different tools than the reliance on violence. Spanking (hitting with the open hand), paddling (hitting with an object) and corporal punishment (hitting with intent to hurt another) for any reason only disavows the use of constructive non-violent means of resolving conflicts and resolving differences of opinion. Instead we need to demonstrate the trust and respect we wish others to learn. Those who are hit, learn to hit. Those who are listened to, learn to listen.

A husband no longer has a right to physically "chastise an errant wife". Members of the military and incarcerated felons may no longer be punished by flogging. The elderly and the mentally ill are protected from physical maltreatment. Animal trainers aren't permitted to use cruel methods. Yet in the schools of 22 states of the U.S., between 1/3 and 1/2 million beatings of children, ususally with a large wooden boards, occur every year, often resulting in injuries of bruising, breaking of skin, torn muscles, scarring. Among other effects are depression, school phobia, impairment to learning, eating and sleep disorders, school vandalism, bullying, aggression and rebelliousness.

Here is another interesting article. The state of Texas should be proud. More kids beaten to death than soldiers dying in Iraq who are from Texas.(not to mention 73,000+ kids assaulted by teachers in the school. http://www.stophitting.com/disatscho...tesBanning.php )
http://nospank.net/weaver5.htm

My wife and I have never hit our kids. It is plain wrong and has no positive result. As far as I am concerned people (Parents or Teachers) that have to beat a kid with a object or hand should get life in jail. No if's and's or but's.

"The beaten become beaters"

Sorry about the rant but with "spanking" being a topic here on more than one occassion latly I felt the need to let it all out.

MalloryKeaton

I agree. Violence isn't the answer. I think spanking is wrong. Like you mentioned all it teaches a child is that when they get older and someone smaller and younger than them does something they don't like they have the right to hit them. Why it's ok to hit children and not adults is beyond me. Hitting is wrong to begin with and the fact that to some hitting/spanking a child is ok is sickening. If you think that you're not hitting a child when you spank them you're wrong. Whether it's hitting, spanking, slapping, etc. it shouldn't be allowed. If the only way to control a child is to strike them then obviously there's a much bigger problem then the incident that made you want to spank the child to begin with. I realize some people feel they have the right to spank, but I disagree that it's ok to do so. When people don't mind humilitating a child by spanking them yet no one would dare think about treating an adult in that way we must wonder when a child went from being a person to being a piece of property in which you may treat 'it' in any way you wish.

mh67511

I was spanked as a child and turned out fine. When I was acting up and did something bad I got spanked and I knew that I shouldn't do that. I don't think there is anything wrong with spanking kids as long as it doesn't go overboard. And I see so many young kids these days that aren't spanked and they just act horribly.

TokyoNiGHTS

I think it depends. If the only type of punishment a kid recieves when they do something bad is a spanking, then it could teach them that violence is a way to control people, since that's how they were controlled.

Semmer

I don't think spanking is nescessaryly bad unless it is taken out of hand. But no school should tell a parent that they have to spank their child.

The Happy Psycho

Whaaa? I can remember one time when I was about 6, I had hit my little brother and I got spanked for it. It didn't teach me that its ok to hit smaller people, it taught me not to do it again. Maybe it does just depend on the child, but I was spanked growing up and I think I turned out fine.

mh67511

I agree that if that's the only way you punish your kids, that's not good. And you need to be careful that you don't start spanking your kids for no reason.

imajica

I can't believe that there are actually schools out there that have guidelines for "parent-administered corporal punishment" obviously a school has a responsibility to notify a parent of a childs behaviour and the school may discipline the child in an appropriate way but surely how a parent decides to punish their child is a private matter that the school should have absolutley no say in.

Personally i don't believe in spanking children - having grown up in a house where violence was a constant in my early years i really don't believe that there is any place for it in a home. I know that it can be a useful tool for teaching kids right from wrong and that for many kids they grow up to be fine but kids tend to learn more from what we do than what we say and i don't think that its a good idea to show kids that violence is ever ok.

Vampires_Bite

If you do it 'properly' (i.e, not going overboard) Spanking isn't showing children Violence is ok. I got the occasional smack when i was a kid, yet i am ok and dont go around hitting people!

I dont see why the mother sent her child to that school if she knew the spanking policy which she signed!

sum1

Way to turn this into a Hate America topic.

- Jen -

When i played up as a kid, i recieved a smack, it was the only way my parents punished me, cos i never would actually do any other punishments, if they grounded me, i would still go out of the house, if they put me in my room, i would just walk out again, smacking was the only thing that would stop me in my tracks, and i learnt very quickly what things would result in a smack.

I think i turned out ok, i'm not violent, or controlling, When i have kids, i will guarentee that i will smack them.

If kids misbehave, then i think each parent has the right to decide if they want to smack their kid, if parents dont want to smack their kid, thats cool, but i cant stand when people criticise other parents for smacking their own kids. And going back to the original topic, IMO it shouldnt be for the school to administer, its a parental responsibility.

is this the sentence of the week or something ? not everything is a "hate America" topic.