Georgia School Reinstates Paddling Policy: Reports

A school in Georgia said that it is reinstating paddling as a form of discipline.

The Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics sent home consent forms informing parents of a new policy that would allow paddling, WAGT-TV reported on Sept. 6.

“In this school, we take discipline very seriously,” Superintendent Jody Boulineau told the station.

There is no obligation for parents to allow the measure, and the form specifically said that no more than three hits from the paddle would be administered. Parents who don’t agree to the policy will have their children suspended for as many as five days for disciplinary problems rather than paddling.

A third of parents who got the forms have agreed to paddling, the station reported.

“I’ve heard, ‘Great, it’s about time, we’re so glad that this is happening again, they should’ve never taken it out of schools,’ all the way to ‘Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe you are doing that,’” Boulineau said.

Regarding the punishment, “I honestly feel like it’s something that’s not going to be used very often. Sometimes it’s just kind of the threat of it being there becomes a deterrent in itself,” she said.

Paddling is still legal in the state of Georgia and 19 other states. It’s rare for a school to include it, WAGT reported.

The form said that students will be taken to a school office, behind closed doors, and will place their hands on either their knees or on a piece of furniture and will be struck on the behind with a paddle, WLOS reported.

According to the school’s website, the “Georgia School for Innovation and the Classics is a public charter school that opened on September 8, 2015.”

“GSIC is committed to excellence in all its endeavors, including delivering a classical education centered on the three phases of the classical Trivium: grammar (grades 1-4), logic (grades 5-8), and rhetoric (grades 9-12) with an employment of the Socratic method throughout the classroom experience,” the school adds.