Taylor Santos is a straight-A sophomore at Springtown High School near Fort Worth, Texas. Recently she allegedly got caught letting another student cheat off of her work and chose corporal punishment, read “spanking,” over a suspension because she didn’t want to miss any class time.
She went to the Vice Prinicipal’s office where her mother, Anna Jorgensen, was contacted via the telephone. Mom said she was okay with it as long as her daughter was. It turns out that Texas is one of 19 states in which corporal punishment is still legal in the public school systems. Following the administration of her daughter’s punishment Jorgensen was red-faced with anger, but why?
She told local news affiliate WFAA that it was her understanding that it was supposed to be a woman who administered the paddling but instead it was an as yet unidentified male Vice Principal. Well, mom was right as the written school policy states that, “spanking of a student can only be done by a member of the same sex.” The spanking was done behind closed doors with a female officer on hand to observe.
Her daughter’s backside was fire-engine red and looked as if it had been “burned and blistered,” according to Jorgensen. She took pictures for proof of her claims. Here is the local report:
Another student from the same school, Jada Watt, admits to having smarted off to this same Vice Principal and got the same treatment. The only difference in her case was that it was a male officer observing the administration of the paddling. Jada’s mother, Cathi, was not happy when she found out. She said:
“A swat is a swat–yes it is and they do sting. But to bruise a child? If I had done that, they would have called CPS on me. She added, “Two men giving her a swat behind closed doors, that is creepy.”
^Jada and Cathi Watt
There is a recent law in Texas that provide parents the right to disallow schools from the practice by requesting as much. As for this local school board, they’re actually looking to change the same-sex rule because they claim the overwhelming number of male higher-ups make the particular rule extremely difficult to enforce.
Jorgensen intends on attending the upcoming school board meeting to voice her concern over possibly changing the rule.
“I think Taylor is proof that we need to keep that policy. I don’t believe a man intentionally meant to do that to her, but it still happens, because men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls.”
As a parent I’ll admit there’s no corporal punishment in my home. That’s a personal decision and I don’t frown on those who do. But as a father of a female, I can say unequivocally that I would never condone behind-closed-doors paddling of my daughter by a grown man while another man watches.
What do you think about this idea of requiring someone of the same sex to administer corporal punishment at public schools? Heck, what’s your opinion of the fact that they still paddle kids at school?
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