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| Some spanking supporters admit that spanking can be child abuse. Far fewer acknowledge the sexual aspects. The paddlers who admit that physical abuse is at least possible generally have a string of meaningless, unmeasurable, “feel good” phrases to try to justify how they beat children and, at the same time, avoid doing harm. “Paddling needs to be done ‘the right way,’” they say. If you can figure out what that means, please let me know. “Paddling/spanking “needs to be ‘done in love, not anger.’” How does a school staff member wielding a paddle over a possibly sexually attractive adolescent paddler her “in love?” The trouble with all of these Orwellian phrases is that not one person can define the difference between “good hitting” and “abuse,” and between spanking that is sexually charged from that which is not. It is also true that those very same hitters, if an adolescent is harmed in some way that we can see, will claim they “did not intend” to bruise or injure her. This admission that they “unintentionally” harmed a child when hitting her proves that they, contrary to their claims, either did not know, or did not care, how to paddle her “the right way” after all. | | Is there any way to accurately define “abuse” that thinking people can agree on that isn’t just a wishy washy, meaningless phrase like, “hitting in love?” | | We can easily define abuse in other contexts. I was easily able to find an excellent working definition of “abuse” from a nursing home that I don’t think anyone, from any belief system, would fault on any level. I decided to see if they would fit as a guideline to protect children and adolescents from abuse as well. I selected the items from that policy that applied to schools, and listed them word-for-word, just as the nursing home guidelines had them. The only differences in the following passage and the nursing home guidelines are my substitution of the words “school” instead of “nursing home,” and “student” instead of “patient,” etc. I don’t see any reason why these same definitions of elder abuse could not apply to child and adolescent abuse. I don’t see why we couldn’t say that all school children have the right to be free from mistreatment, neglect, and abuse, just as older adults, who may not be as mentally and physically functional as middle aged people, have a right to be. Notice how paddling, sexually charged assaults, and even the isolation and forced hours of sitting without moving such as students are made to do in “ISS,” are all rightly considered “abuse” if done to older people. Why would those practices be considered anything less than abuse when done to children? Is there some innate difference in us as we age why institutional beating or long confinements to the elderly constitutes inhumane abuse, but the same institutional treatment is benevolent and humane when done to children? I don’t think so. Enlightened schools need neither paddling nor “ISS” to train children very well, both socially and educationally. My local district, Lakeshore High School in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, has great success without resorting to “paddling,” “corporal punishment, “in house suspension,” or any other practice that would fall under “abuse” in the nursing home guidelines. | | I believe any school in the United States, or the world for that matter, could adopt this very same policy and “do better” in every way than they would without it. I believe further that any state that adopts this policy will improve educationally and socially at a much faster rate than it would without it. I believe that the group of states which adopt such policies will overall do better, in every measurable way, than the states that don’t, just as the states that don’t institutionally beat children now are doing better than the ones that do. This is a sound policy for any institution where people are cared for. Providing proper funding and staffing are separate concerns that can plague nursing homes and schools alike, but this policy will make any institution a better place. | | Abuse Program Policy and Procedure | | (Adopted verbatim from a nursing home manual with school terms substituted, as noted above) | | Policy Statement-- It is the policy of [name of high school] to maintain an environment free of abuse and neglect. The student has the right to be free from verbal, sexual, physical, and mental abuse, corporal punishment, and involuntary seclusion. Students will not be subjected to abuse by anyone including, but not limited to, facility staff, other students, consultants or volunteers, staff or other agencies serving the student, family members or legal guardians, friends or other individuals. |
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