Kids can still get paddled in FL public schools, but lawmakers are looking to curb the punishment

Lawmakers in the Florida House said on Wednesday they didn’t know public school officials could still use corporal punishment to discipline students. That practice, which is in use in nearly a third of school districts, could be restricted under a proposal that’s getting bipartisan support this legislative session.

Short of banning school officials from paddling or hitting kids, the proposal from Palm Beach Democrat Rep. Katherine Waldron would require schools that use corporal punishment to get permission to do so from parents at the beginning of the school year.

Principals would be barred from hitting kids whose parents don’t opt in or fill out a permission slip. The bill gained unanimous approval in its first committee stop. The identical Senate version has not been heard.

“Many people probably did think that it was already banned. I didn’t know it was a district-by-district thing. … I can tell you that if it were me and my kid came home and told me that they mouthed off to the teacher and as a result of mouthing off to the teacher some principal took a piece of wood to them; Me and that principal would have issues,” said Democratic Rep. Christopher Benjamin of Miami-Dade County. “This bill doesn’t go far enough. It should be outright banned.”