(CNN) -- The 3-year-old came home in tears from his public pre-kindergarten program, unable to adequately describe what had happened to him or how he had sustained bruises that stretched around his hips to his stomach.
His mother figured out he had been paddled at the program for taking off his shoes during class and playing with an air conditioner. When she went to school officials about the matter, she found that the paddling was allowed under school policy. Ultimately, she wound up withdrawing her son from the rural Texas school.
The boy's case was profiled in a report issued Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. He was among hundreds of thousands of children receiving corporal punishment in school, the groups said, a topic debated as hotly as corporal punishment at home. Last school year, more than 200,000 children were spanked or paddled at school, according to the organizations' joint report.
"Every public school needs effective methods of discipline, but beating kids teaches violence, and it doesn't stop bad behavior," wrote Alice Farmer, the author of the report. "Corporal punishment discourages learning, fails to deter future misbehavior and at times even provokes it."
For the record, most traditional public schools banned corporal punishment decades ago. Also, tempered corporal punishment should not be equated with bruising beatings. Under no circumstances should any child be hit hard enough to leave bruises! In fact, educators are required by law to report to a children's services agency and/or law enforcement officials, if they observe unexplained bruises on children in their charge.
Should ever lay a hand or paddle a child. They dont love that child and are only looking out for the best interest of themself. Charges should be brought against the person who paddled this child. He or she obviously swung in anger not for disaplinary purposes. Dottie