Sunday, April 18, 2010

Nation & World | Students shape up under paddle threat | Seattle Times Newspaper

Nation & World | Students shape up under paddle threat | Seattle Times Newspaper

Students shape up under paddle threat

In an era when students talk back to teachers and wear ever-more-risqué clothing to school, one central Texas city has a solution.
The Washington Post
TEMPLE, Texas — In an era that students talk back to teachers, skip class and wear ever-more-risqué clothing to school, one Central Texas city has hit upon a deceptively simple solution: Bring back the paddle.
Most school districts across the country banned paddling of students long ago. Texas sat that trend out. Nearly one-quarter of the estimated 225,000 students who received corporal punishment nationwide in 2006, the latest figures available, were from the Lone Star State.
But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple's school board president.
Since paddling was brought back to the city's 14 schools by a unanimous board vote last May, behavior at Temple's single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the schools has been paddled.
"The discipline problem is much better than it's been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the

Kentwood High School to compete in rocket challenge

An eight-person team from Kentwood High School also plans to travel for a rocket competition in May.

Ingraham High students set for rocket launch in Alabama

Ten Ingraham High School students will spend Sunday trying to launch their 10-foot-long rocket a mile high into the Alabama sky, along with 13 other high-school rocketry teams from around the country.


Nonprofit school in talks to use T.T. Minor Elementary

The boarded-up TT Minor Elementary School at 17th Avenue and Union Street could have a new tenant as early as this summer.