Paddling Prevalent In Alabama Schools, South
Nearly 19,000 Alabama students received corporal punishment in the 2013-2014 school year, according to an analysis from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. Trisha Powell Crain, an independent journalist, crunched the numbers in a special report for Al.com. She discovered some disparities in a practice steeped in Southern culture. Listen above or read key excerpts below.
The Culture of Corporal Punishment in the South
When I first thought about this story, I wasn’t sure it was a big deal. Then when you look at what the data shows … how the use of paddling is reserved to the Southern States … and of course, Mississippi had the highest rate of paddling, and then Arkansas and Alabama. You have to begin to wonder why. I kept digging into the data to see who do we paddle and how many schools paddle. A little less than half the schools in Alabama paddled a child during the 2013-14 school year. And it paints an interesting picture when you put it on the map. In Alabama there were 18,749 students who were paddled.
The Prevalence of Paddling in Rural Counties
When you put it up on a map and when you understand the way Alabama school districts are laid out, you can see that these are rural school districts. Education Week did a national analysis a few weeks ago, and they did reach that conclusion. They said that in the schools where paddling is used, they do tend to be rural. And further they said they also tend to be heavily African-American, and they also tend to be high-poverty. Is this correlation? Is it causation? And then it is widely known and sort of accepted in the South that this is how we discipline children.
Local School Policies on Paddling
It is completely up to the local school district, which means the local board of education, because that’s who sets the policies. So if a local school board says we don’t believe in paddling children, then they simply pass a policy. I will say that 107 school districts in Alabama did have a school where a child was paddled. There were 133 districts in the total, so that leaves 26 districts where no students were paddled.
Racial Disparities and Paddling
One of the purposes in collecting this information is to determine if disciplinary polices are being used to discriminate. All the data so far tells us that black children are punished more harshly for the same offenses that white children commit. In looking at the rate of paddling, in the schools where kids were paddled, black girls accounted for 47 percent of the paddlings of all girls yet they accounted for only 24 percent of the population. So there is a big difference there. Some data from a couple of years ago shows that we are, in Alabama, particularly harsh on Black girls.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
Auburn fires coach Hugh Freeze following 12th loss in his last 15 SEC games
The 56-year-old Freeze failed to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three years on the Plains, scoring 24 or fewer points in 17 of his 22 league games. He also ended up on the wrong end of too many close matchups, including twice this season thanks partly to questionable calls.
In a ‘disheartening’ era, the nation’s former top mining regulator speaks out
Joe Pizarchik, who led the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from 2009 to 2017, says Alabama’s move in the wake of a fatal 2024 home explosion increases risks to residents living atop “gassy” coal mines.
