NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT RESOLUTION


*In many school districts, reasonable and appropriate physical discipline of a child is still lawful when it is inflicted for purposes of restraining or correcting a child in accord with school district and state rules. Many child advocates, however, view corporal punishment of students as a form of child abuse, even when corporal punishment has otherwise been legal. In addition to actions by many individual school districts, 23 states have outlawed corporal punishment in schools, most in the last few years.

* The National Center for the Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives in the Public Schools estimates that between two and three million incidents of corporal punishment occur in American schools each year.

* The National Coalition of Advocates for Students, using data collected by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, reports the most frequent use of corporal punishment occurs with poor, minority, and male students.

* NEA's 1972 Task Force on Corporal Punishment in 1972 established the Association as the first major national education organization to call for eliminating corporal punishment and developing appropriate alternatives to its use. NEA's current (1992) resolution on discipline states: "The Association also believes that corporal punishment should not be used as a means of disciplining students." 1