Bill to end physical punishment in schools stalls in Congress
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Many complain about the pace with which Congress moves legislation, but lawmakers say it is simply unacceptable to hold up certain bills. A bill working to end physical punishment in schools is stalled and some are worried it won’t budge.
It’s a bill stuck in the House that has daily consequences. A democratic initiative to ban corporal punishment in schools isn’t moving anywhere anytime soon, especially when 19 states still explicitly allow the practice.
HR. 2268, The Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act of 2015, was introduced in May and assigned a subcommittee in November, meaning in eight months one move was made. Dr. Elizabeth Gershoff, a Developmental psychologist and Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at University of Texas Austin, says this should be bipartisan or nonpartisan, not a democratic crusade.
"I think people don’t care about the science, they just care about their own personal experience,” said Gershoff. "And they seem to think it worked, quote, un-quote. When really what works for children is talking to them, giving them natural consequences.”
Congressman Dave Loebsack (D-IA) is a cosponsor on the legislation, which eliminates corporal punishment and assists local educational agencies to change the disciplinary climate in schools that maintain the practice. Loebsack says every day of inaction with the bill affects children. He says the slow pace is what has many Americans fed up with Congress.
"There are other ways that we can get kids to do the things that they need to do to be responsible, to take personal responsibility,” said Loebsack. "Corporal punishment has never been one of those ways, and it won’t be.”
Gershoff’s research shows that corporal punishment does not promote appropriate behavior, yet the practice continues, especially in the southeast U.S. School districts in the 19 states that allow corporal punishment use what they call paddles to hit children, but Gershoff says they’re really boards.
"So it’s basically a piece of wood that they’re hitting kids with,” said Gershoff. "And if an adult was hit by that, say somebody got into a fight in a bar and was hit by a piece of wood that big, that would be called a weapon.”
Loebsack says he’ll do everything in his power to get this legislation moving, but says he needs other members to work with him on this.
"There are a lot of folks who think this is the right thing to do,” said Loebsack. "They think it’s the right thing to do because they think it has the positive effects that they want it to have, but we know that it doesn’t, that’s the problem.”
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