Pediatricians urge nationwide ban on spanking in schools

In this story: Common practice Alternatives urged RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that spanking in schools be abolished by law throughout the United States.

The AAP, which has about 55,000 members, said "corporal punishment may affect adversely a student's self-image and school achievement and that it may contribute to disruptive and violent student behavior."

"We should be giving positive reinforcement, not negative reinforcement to violence," said Dr. Wayne Yankus, a pediatrician.

A 1998 study at the University of New Hampshire supports that view. It found that corporal punishment can lead to more anti-social behavior in children in later years -- behavior like cheating, lying, disobedience and deliberately breaking things.

Corporal punishment in public schools is banned in the following states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia also bans spanking in schools Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, citing 1998 data.     QUICKVOTE Should spanking be banned in school? Yes -- it fosters a climate of violence No -- it is a necessary means of discipline View Results     MESSAGE BOARD To spank or not to spank

Students are spanked or paddled between 1 million and 2 million times a year in U.S. schools, the AAP reported, citing federal statistics.

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia prohibit spanking students, said the report. The United States and Canada are the only industrialized countries with corporal punishment in schools.

Psychologist Irwin Hyman of Temple University in Philadelphia has worked for many years to abolish spanking in schools. "There's no other place in our society where somebody can aggress, inflict pain, smack another person," he said. "So why should we be able to do this to children?"

Some advocates of spanking cite the oft-heard aphorism "spare the rod, spoil the child," and a similar passage from the Bible, Proverbs 13:24. And many parents who were themselves spanked as children believe it is an effective form of discipline.

But the AAP says parents, educators and politicians need to encourage alternative forms of discipline.

"Corporal punishment has no place," said Yankus. "We need to talk about violence mediation skills, but we need to reduce the amount of violence that we find in schools at this time. Therefore there's no place for us to be spanking children."

In some schools, said Hyman, discipline is equated with punishment. Efforts to prevent misbehavior receive little attention, he said.

A more productive atmosphere, he said, occurs when teachers and school officials emphasize positive, desirable student behavior rather than merely compiling a list of what students are not allowed to do.

CNN correspondent Pat Etheridge contributed to this report.

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American Academy of Pediatrics
   •Corporal Punishment in Schools(RE9754)
   •Guidance for Effective Discipline (RE9740)

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