Georgia School paddles students as punishment

According to a local news station, WRDW / WAGT, a charter school in Hephzibah, Georgia, has instituted a policy of punishing students.

The School of Georgia for Innovation and Classics (GSIC) sent a consent form to parents asking for permission to use corporal punishment on their children if they acted in the class, according to the local newspaper.

"There was a time when corporal punishment was the norm at school and you did not have the problems you had," Superintendent Jody Boulineau told WRDW / WAGT.

GSIC, a kindergarten to grade 9 school in the Augusta metropolitan area, which opened in 2015, does not require its students to receive the new paddling policy as a punishment. Boulineau stated that "parents can either give their consent for us to use this as a disciplinary measure, or refuse consent".

Responses to the controversial policy range from approval to shock, Boulineau told WRDW / WAGT. "I've heard it's great, it's high time, we're excited that it's happening again, they should never have come out of school." Do it. "

The details of the policy are presented in the form – which can be seen in the WRDW / WAGT report – sent home to parents. For students whose parents have given their consent, the pickup will be "administered according to a policy of" three strikes, "according to the document. "A student will be taken to an office behind closed doors. The student will put his hands on his knees or his furniture and will be hit on the buttocks with a paddle, "explains the form.

The form states that the punishment must occur in the "presence of an adult witness" and that "no more than three lashes shall be given". in wood and '24 inches in length, six inches in width and 3/4 inch in thickness'.

In withdrawing from corporal punishment, parents must accept a five-day suspension policy in place of the paddle.

Boulineau told WRDW / WAGT that about a third of the forms she has received so far have accepted the paddle policy.

Nineteen US states still allow corporal punishment in schools, and Georgia is one of them.

"Honestly, I feel it's something that's not going to be used very often," Boulineau told the local news station. "Sometimes it's just the threat that it's there is becoming a deterrent in itself."