What began as a student project has all but eliminated paddling in KY schools.

In 2017, when Kentuckian Alex Young began a campaign as a middle school student to stop corporal punishment in the state’s public schools, he said there were hundreds of incidents annually.

Young said he sees promise in data from the Kentucky Department of Education released Oct. 18 showing there were 17 incidents of corporal punishment in only two school districts in 2021-2022. Kentucky is one of at least 19 states that still permits paddling and other forms of corporal punishment, but a new state regulation limits it.

One of the two districts where corporal punishment occurred in 2021-22, Bell County Schools, banned the practice this year and the superintendent of the other district, Pike County, said he is now advising principals and administrators against using corporal punishment at school.

Young, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Notre Dame who graduated last year from Louisville’s St. Xavier High School, said the attitude change from officials, the new data and a 2021 regulation approved by the state board of education “give me hope that we are closer to eradicating the archaic practice in Kentucky.”

“It is appalling that students with disabilities are being hit with wooden paddles in school,” said Young, explaining why as a student he has tried to change the state law permitting corporal punishment. “Schools should be a place of refuge and foster a safe learning environment. School sanctioned violence should have no place in Kentucky.”

Most concerning among data from last school year is that 7 of the 17 incidents involved students with disabilities, Young said.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass is on record as saying he considers corporal punishment a barbaric practice. State officials have said only the General Assembly can overturn it.

“I’m embarrassed that it’s anywhere in the state of Kentucky, and I’m proud we’ve enacted a regulation to limit its practice,” Glass said in a statement.

Student advocacy

Young said he began working on ending corporal punishment in Kentucky public schools in middle school after passing mock legislation on the topic in the Kentucky Youth Assembly. After the youth government conference, he began to work with state legislators on a legislative push for a ban on corporal punishment in 2017.

In 2020, the state House of Representatives passed legislation to ban the practice in a bipartisan manner, Young said. The state Senate did not take the bill up, he said.

Young said he also met with Glass last year before the state Board of Education passed an administrative regulation in December 2021 restricting use of the practice.

The regulation prohibits corporal punishment for certain students such as those who are foster children or are homeless or who have special learning plans at school because of disabilities. It requires witnesses and layers of guardian and parental permission.

Also after administering corporal punishment, the school must ensure that the student receives a minimum of 30 minutes of counseling by the end of the next school day.

Superintendents respond

Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Toni Konz Tatman said 152 Kentucky school districts already have policies that prohibit the use of corporal punishment. Fayette County is one of them.

Four school districts have active policies that outline the conditions under which corporal punishment can be deployed, Tatman said. She said the department was unable to confirm dedicated corporal punishment policies in fifteen school districts.

“We are no longer using corporal punishment,” said Bell County Superintendent Terry Gambrel, where, according to state data, corporal punishment was used 5 times involving 4 students last school year.

This school year, he said, the Bell County School Board changed the policy to no longer allow corporal punishment.

Pike County Superintendent Reed Adkins said in an interview that the school board in his district has not yet discussed a ban.

However, Adkins said he has encouraged his staff not to use corporal punishment.

“I don’t recommend that my principals, or teachers use corporal punishment as a form of discipline,” said Adkins. He said there are more effective methods.

State records show that the district had used corporal punishment 12 times involving 11 students in 2021-22. Adkins said it was used 5 times this school year.

While he does not advocate the practice in schools, Adkins said he doesn’t have an issue with a parent who decides to use corporal punishment.

He said that in the recent incidents of corporal punishment in his district schools, parents requested it, and gave written permission. There were additional staff members witnessing the corporal punishment incidents, he said

With 8,000 students, Adkins said, only a “very minor, small percentage of kids in our district ...actually received corporal punishment last year. “

This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 10:47 AM.