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Help ban corporal punishment in our schools
April 13th, 2010 by Richard Collins

Legality of corporal punishment in the United ...
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U.S. House Education and Labor Subcommittee to Hear Bill on April 15th Banning School Paddling

On April l5th, a subcommittee of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will begin hearings on banning school corporal punishment. Please write committee members immediately to ask for support for a bill banning school corporal punishment being introduced by Representative Carolyn McCarthy in the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities. The measure would link corporal punishment bans to federal funding and, if successful, would probably be added to the ESEA (formerly “Leave No Child Behind”) reauthorization measure.

Act Today:

(1) Write Representative Carolyn McCarthy, Subcommittee Chair, Ranking Member Representative Todd “Russell” Platts and committee members. Thank Representative McCarthy for sponsoring the bill, ask all subcommittee members to support a ban on school corporal punishment and tell them why it should be banned. See arguments and contact information below. Ask the Chair and Ranking Member to copy all committee members on your letter or write them individually.

(2) If you live in a state with a Representative on the committee, it is important that you email that person and ask for support for a ban.

Contact Information:

Honorable Carolyn McCarthy
2346 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5516
Fax: (202) 225-5758
Constituent Email: http://forms.house.gov/mccarthy/contact.shtml D-NY 4th District

Honorable Todd Platts
2455 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5836
Fax: (202) 226-1000
Constituent Email: http://www.house.gov/platts/email.shtml R-PA l9th District

Representative George Miller, the House Education and Labor Committee Chair, is a member of the subcommittee hearing the bill. His email accepts messages from all states, not just his constituents:

Honorable George Miller
2205 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
phone:202-225-2095
fax:202-225-560905 Rayburn House Office Building
georgemiller.house.gov/contactus/2007/08/post_1.html

Contact information for committee members:

Please be sure to contact members from your state. If you do not know your district, please go to www.congress.org. Type in your zip code under “get involved.”

U.S. House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities Contact Information (email for constituents). Open hyperlink or copy/paste in your browser.

You can also go to these sites to find regular office mail addresses:

Republicans:

Honorable Russell Platts
http://www.house.gov/platts/email.shtml R-PA l9th District

Honorable Buck McKeon
http://mckeon.house.gov/lets_talk.shtml R-CA 25th District

Honorable Brett Guthrie
http://guthrie.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=117§iontree=4,117 R-KY 02 District

Honorable David P. Roe
https://forms.house.gov/roe/webforms/contact.html R-TN 01 District

Honorable Glen “GT” Thomson
https://forms.house.gov/thompson/contact-form.shtml R-PA 5th District

Democrats

Honorable Carolyn McCarthy, Chairwoman
Constituent Email: http://forms.house.gov/mccarthy/contact.shtml D-NY 4th District

Honorable George Miller
http://georgemiller.house.gov/contactus/2007/08/post_1.html (D CA-07)

Honorable Yvette Clarke
http://clarke.house.gov/contact/contact-us-form.shtml (D NY-11)

Honorable Bobby Scott
http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=272&Itemid=60 (D VA-03)

Honorable Carol Shea-Porter
http://forms.house.gov/shea-porter/webform/issue_subscribe.htm (D NH -01)

Honorable Paul Tonko
http://tonko.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=3§iontree=3 (D-NY-21)

Honorable Jared Polis
http://polis.house.gv/Contact/ ( D CO-02)

Honorable Judy Chu
http://chu.house.gov/contact/index.shtml (D CA-32)

Facts About and Arguments For Banning School Corporal Punishment:

In 2006-07, over 223,000 students were paddled in US schools, that’s over 1,200 paddlings a day. U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Study: www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=statesbanning

Sources for the following information can be found at:
www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=atschool-main or under (laws)
www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=laws-main

* Corporal punishment is linked to poorer academic achievement.
* Physical injuries occur. Welts and bruises frequently occur as well as other injuries requiring medical treatment.
* Psychological injury may occur that adversely affects learning and attitudes toward teachers and others in authority.
* Litigation against school boards and educators because of paddling injuries is not uncommon.
* Corporal punishment teaches children that physical violence is an acceptable way to solve problems.
* Better alternatives exist.
* Corporal punishment is disproportionately used on poor children, children with disabilities, minorities and boys.
* States have already determined corporal punishment is harmful.
* In almost all states it is banned in childcare, foster care and institutions for children. It should be banned in schools too.
* More than 50 national organizations oppose the use of school corporal punishment. These include the National Education Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association.
* Over twenty African American leaders have signed a proclamation opposing it.

Corporal punishment is illegal in schools in over l00 countries in the world.

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The USA Should Move to Institute International Standards on Child Rights
February 16th, 2010 by Richard Collins

Book Review

James G. Dwyer, The Relationship Rights of Children. Cambridge University Press, 2006, $ 55.00 hardcover.

The United States and Somalia stand as the only two nations in the world that refuse to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a document that lays down the basic rights and moral standing of children. Nor has the U.S. attempted to adopt the comprehensive legislation passed in many countries, such as England’s The Children Act, which focuses on all matters pertaining to children, with the child’s welfare squarely defining all legal actions.

James Dwyer, in his complexly argued book, The Relationship Rights of Children, believes that, while the United States goes far in protecting parents” rights, it is often at the expense of the welfare of children. He does not offer why the United States leans so far in favor of parents (there are complicated historical and cultural reasons for our “difference”), but instead makes a strong case, based on two centuries of philosophical reasoning, for why children deserve the same moral and legal consideration as adults, even when this consideration steps on the rights of adults.

The debate about children’s rights, when it takes place at all in this country, is usually carried on by legal scholars, with the occasional contribution of social scientists who either study child development or who offer measures of children’s economic and psychological well-being. With Dwyer, we are offered extensive arguments from the philosopher giants, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls and others on the value of the moral autonomy of the individual. These philosophers, he admits, focus their arguments on adults, not children. In fact, he notes, John Stuart Mill, in his theory of liberty, specifically states: “[this] is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties.” Not so for Dwyer. He makes a compelling case that the same moral rights apply to children.

“Critically then, each of us competent adults has rights of self-determination because it is generally assumed as a moral matter that our interests matter, and matter equally regardless of our status in society. This empirical assumption certainly applies to children as well, and if we are to respect children as equals, we must extend the moral assumption to them also–that is, that their interests matter as much as do adults’ interests in state decision making.”

But how do children know what their interests are, and if they did, how can they assert them? Children are, of course, dependent upon adults to do so for them. But which adults? Here Dwyer argues forcefully that although the law professes to promote “the best interests of children,” in fact it is far more protective of parental rights, and that these rights are often based on a purely biological claim, not any test of parental ability. Dwyer promotes a view of parents as caretakers, not automatic owners of children. He focuses his criticism on laws creating parental rights at birth, and protecting them in events of abuse and neglect after birth. His solution is to drastically re-formulate the law so that, among other requirements, a birth mother must sign a “Parental Vow” promising love and support within two days after birth in order to become a legal parent, but the state may file a petition within seven days to determine in a court proceeding whether the mother is, in fact, unsuitable for one of many reasons, including age, mental incapacity, past conduct of violence against family members, etc. Fathers achieve legal parenthood only if the birth mother consents and they are married. Fathers not married to the mother can only be deemed legal parents if the mother consents and the father petitions the court, passing all the tests of adequate parenting. Non-biological adults may also petition the court within 30 days and their claim will be determined by the court. Following birth, similar strict tests are applied in cases of abuse or neglect of children, allowing the court to more easily terminate parental rights than is now the case.

His view of children’s rights privileges birth mothers but gives little other advantage to biological ties. Unwed fathers still have an obligation to support but not to access unless they have passed all the above tests. Adults who have acted like parents, or have firm attached relationships to children, like stepfathers, have rights over non-involved biological fathers, and a child may have more than two significant adults in his life. From this perspective, attachment trumps biology and a parent must earn the right to become and to continue as a parent.

This concept of parents as caretakers or trustees rather than the owners of children who have independent rights is much more in keeping with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and with most European efforts at establishing a code of children’s rights. Some of its obvious consequences would be a move toward no corporal punishment and ultimately the right of children themselves, as they grow older, to petition to “divorce” their parents–the course taken in Europe.

Grounded in a strong tradition of moral philosophy, this child-centered approach adds valuable support to some American legal scholars and others who have been moving more timidly in this direction, most notably with a new revision of the influential American Law Institutes” treatise on Parent and Child where “de facto” parents (such as stepparents) without biological ties would be given greater access rights.

A limitation of this book is that Dwyer limits himself to the “protective” rights of young children and does not wander into the thornier “choice rights” of maturing adolescents. For instance: does the protective state have the right to insist on drug testing for children before they may join any after-school activity, as the Supreme Court recently ruled? or, are the rights of children served when in one courtroom a 13-year-old who steals a candy bar may be given a lawyer and nearly all the due process rights of a criminal defendant while down the hall a 13-year-old whose physical custody is being determined following divorce may have no voice or representation at all? Perhaps this philosopher will tackle maturing children’s rights in his next book.

Mary Ann Mason

University of California, Berkeley

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Encouraging news on child abuse front
February 16th, 2010 by Richard Collins

I posted this in the Amazon, Spanking your children should be illegal forum
+++++++++++

We interrupt this forum for some breaking news!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=9730224

A massive new federal study documents an unprecedented and dramatic decrease in incidents of serious child abuse, especially sexual abuse. Experts hailed the findings as proof that crackdowns and public awareness campaigns had made headway.

An estimated 553,000 children suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse in 2005-06, down 26 percent from the estimated 743,200 abuse victims in 1993, the study found.

“It’s the first time since we started collecting data about these things that we’ve seen substantial declines over a long period, and that’s tremendously encouraging,” said professor David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, a leading researcher in the field of child abuse.

“It does suggest that the mobilization around this issue is helping and it’s a problem that is amenable to solutions,” he said.

But the study points out that 500,000 children were still abused. That is not acceptable, especially in view of the fact that the abused often turn around and abuse others. We must get ahead of the problem and stop sweeping up after the harm has already occurred. Nonetheless, we see that preventive measures do help and that should give us hope we are moving in the right direction.

What would really help is to develop a national policy that set forth requirements for competent parenting and widespread parental training classes. As a final measure licensing of prospective parents could be the next step. Abolishing all forms of physical punishment and verbal abuse must be instituted. There is never any reason to hit a child or threaten them with violence.

The libertarian and conservative religious ideology that family privacy trumps any efforts by the state to intervene in family matters until damage has occured has to go. Parents are not free to do as they please to their children.

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The best interests of the child — UNCRC
January 23rd, 2010 by Richard Collins

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/IHRIP/circle/modules/module5.htm
[quote]

Best interests of the child

A major aspect of the philosophy behind the UNCRC is that children are equals; as human beings they have the same inherent value as grown-ups. The affirmation of the right to play underlines the fact that childhood is valuable in itself and these years are not merely a training period for the adult life. The idea that children have equal value may sound like a truism, but it is, in fact, a radical thought—one not at all respected today.

Children—especially when very young—are vulnerable and need special support to be able to enjoy their rights in full. How can children be granted equal value and at the same time the necessary protection? Part of the answer lies in the principle of “the best interests of the child,” formulated in article 3(1):

In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.

Whenever official decisions are taken which affect children, their interests should be seen as important. The interests of the parents or the state should not be the all-important consideration. This is indeed one of the major messages of the CRC.

Views of the child

This first principle, by its very nature, gives importance to another principle, one about respecting the views of the child. In order to know what actually is in the interests of the child, it is only logical to listen to him or her. The principle is formulated in article 12(1):

States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child be given due weight, in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.

This has been termed by some commentators the “participation” element in the CRC. The idea is that the child has the right to be heard and have his/her ideas taken seriously. The reports by states parties so far have been vague on this article; some have stated that children of, for instance, twelve years of age have the right to reject an adoption or a change of name or nationality. Few have displayed a comprehensive approach to this principle which affects life in schools and families—and in politics.
[/quote]

It is easy to see why despotic parents hate the foundational premises of the UN CRC. They wish to treat their children as property, as clay they can mold to suit their whims and prejudices. You do not treat an equal in this manner. You certainly have no inherent right to punish an equal physically because they do not bow down to you.

Framing the rights of children as elaborated in the UN CRC has profound implications for how parents role in the development of their children is envisioned. Tyrannical patriarchs are out. Thoughtful respectful guardians are in.

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Online resources compiled by James C. Talbot
January 19th, 2010 by Richard Collins

Legality of corporal punishment in the United ...
Image via Wikipedia

For any parent’s who would wish to explore what has become a world wide consensus against spanking, you will find below a number of online resources from my book.

The Road To Positive Discipline: A Parent’s Guide

Slapping and Spanking in Childhood and Its Association with Lifetime Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/gca?sendit=Get+All+Checked+Abstract%28s29&SEARCHID=1041949468944_779&TITLEABSTRACT=Slapping+and+spanking+in+Childhood&JOURNALCODE=&FIRSTINDEX=0&hits=1&RESULTFORMAT=&gca=161%2F7%2F805

Research on Corporal Punishment – Available Online
http://stoptherod.net/research.htm

Corporal Punishment – Empirical Studies
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/CP-Empirical.htm

The Research and Informed Expert Opinion
http://nospank.net./resrch.htm

Slapping and Spanking in Childhood and Its Association With Lifetime Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders in a General Population
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/161/7/805

States Should Ban Violence Against Children – United Nations Study
http://nospank.net/n-q33r.htm

Correlation Between High Rates of Corporal Punishment in Public Schools andSocial Pathologies
http://nospank.net./correlationstudy.htm

Experts – Spanking Harms Children, Especially Girls
http://nospank.net./women.htm

Spanking and Mental Illness
http://nospank.net./falk2.htm

The Sexual Dangers of Spanking Children
http://parentinginjesusfootsteps.org/sxdangers.html

Spanking Can Be Sexual Abuse
http://www.nospank.net/101.htm

panking, Pain and Pleasure
http://www.nospank.net/r-ali.htm

American Academy of Pediatrics’ Position on Physical Punishment
http://nospank.net./aap4-c.htm

ChildAdvocate.org – Corporal Punishment Society’s Acceptable Violence Towards Children
http://www.childadvocate.org/1a_research.htm

What Does Research Say About the Effects of Physical Punishment on Children?
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/familydevelopment/components/7266a.html

The Neurobiology of Child Abuse
http://www.nospank.net/teicher2.htm

It’s Time to Change `The American Way of Discipline’ – Arthur Cherry, M.D.,FAAP,
http://nospank.net./aap5-a.htm

Why Do We Need Full Legal Reform to End All Corporal Punishment?
http://nospank.net./endallcp.htm

Physical Punishment of Children
http://nospank.net./shrc.htm

Corporal Punishment in Schools
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics%3b106/2/343

Lowest Achieving Ohio Schools Quickest With The Paddle-Rights
http://nospank.net./ohio3.htm

Dr. Spock on Parenting (1989)–Excerpts
http://nospank.net./spock2.htm

The Center for Effective Discipline, Columbus, Ohio
http://www.stophitting.com/

End All Corporal Punishment of Children
http://www.neverhitachild.org/

Corporal Punishment and Trauma – Building Better Health
http://healthresources.caremark.com/topic/corporal

Corporal Punishment of Children (Spanking)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/spanking.htm

Giving Guidance on Child Discipline
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/320/7230/261

The Belt, Adrenalin, and Delinquency
http://www.nospank.net/welsh5.htm

Abused Tots Take On Abusive Parents Ways
http://www.nospank.net/tots.htm

Impact of Parenting Styles – Alfred Adler Institute of San Francisco
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/parentin.htm
Adult Consequences of Childhood Parenting Styles – Alfred Adler Institute
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/adult.htm

Ten Reasons Not to Hit Your Kids – The Natural Child Project
http://www.naturalchild.com/jan_hunt/tenreasons.html

Guidance for Effective Discipline
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics%3b101/4/723

Spanking Strikes Out
http://life.familyeducation.com/spanking/discipline/36133.html

Corporal Punishment
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/corporal_punishment.html

Force and Fear Have No Place in Education
http://nospank.net/einstein.htm

Physical Punishment and The Development of Aggressive and Violent Behavior – A Review, by Elizabeth Kandel
http://www.neverhitachild.org/areview.html

Let’s Outlaw Any Hitting of Children
http://www.nospank.net/lndsbrg3.htm

Hitting People Is Wrong – and Children Are People Too
http://www.neverhitachild.org/hitting1.html

The Institute for the Study of Anti-Social Behaviour in Youth – Highlights from the Latest Youth Update
http://www.iay.org/youth_update/abstracts_latest_issue.html#Maltreatment%20and%20its%20Impact%20on%20C

Why Do We Hurt Our Children – The Natural Child Project
http://www.naturalchild.com/james_kimmel/punishment.html

Alternatives to Spanking
http://life.familyeducation.com/spanking/discipline/36135.html

Some Thoughts On Spanking – The Natural Child Project
http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/don_fisher.html

Raising Kind Children
http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/hesguide/humanrel/gh6126.htm

Why You Should Say `No’ to Corporal Punishment – It Doesn’t Work
http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/05-96/05-2796/c02li081.htm

Spanking – An Idea Whose Time Has Gone
http://nospank.net/gurza.htm

Faut-il interdire la fessée? / Should Spanking Be Prohibited?
http://www.nospank.net/n-j48.htm

The Swedish Example
http://parentinginjesusfootsteps.org/crowell-article.html

German Parliament Bans Use Of Corporal Punishment In
Child Rearing
http://nospank.net/deut.htm

Denmark Bans Spanking
http://www.neverhitachild.org/denmark1.html

Israeli High Court on Spanking
http://nospank.net/n-g02.htm

Jerusalem Supreme Court: Corporal Punishment of Children
Is Indefensible
http://nospank.net/israel.htm

Greece Outlaws Corporal Punishment in the Home
http://nospank.net/greece.htm

South Africa’s Constitutional Court Says `NO’ to Spankers in
Christian Schools
http://nospank.net/sacourt2.htm

Spanking of Toddlers to Be a Crime in Scotland
http://www.nospank.net/n-i48.htm

Bangladesh Observes Child Rights Week
http://www.nospank.net/n-f33.htm

BBC News – UK – Smacking Children `Does Not Work’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/252607.stm

Delhi School Kids To Be Spared The Rod
http://nospank.net/delhi.htm

Punjab Bans Corporal Punishment
http://nospank.net/pkstn.htm

No Smacking Rule For Children Under Three
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2001/09/161

Greece outlaws corporal punishment in the home
http://nospank.net/greece.htm

End All Corporal Punishment of Children
http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/

Correlation Between Corporal Punishment and Social Pathologies
http://nospank.net/guthrow.htm

Paddling States v. Non-Paddling States: A National Academic Comparison
http://nospank.net/charles5.htm

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Call For Government Rethink On Hitting Children Following United Nations Report
http://nospank.net/n-j58.htm

Corporal Punishment of Children (Spanking): Introduction and Legality
http://www.religioustolerance.org/spankin2.htm

Kenyan Children Suffer Frequent Beatings by Teachers
http://hrw.org/english/docs/1999/09/09/kenya1654.htm

Dept of Health Issues Guidelines to British Parents on How to Smack TheirChildren
http://wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/smck-f02.shtml

Project NoSpank
http://nospank.net./main.htm

Spanking Articles at findarticles.com
http://findarticles.com/

End All Corporal Punishment of Children – States With Full Abolition
http://endcorporalpunishment.org/pages/frame.html

The Center for Effective Discipline
http://www.stophitting.com/

Parenting Tips
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/behavior/368.html

Spanking – Ages 6 to 12 | ahealthyme.com
http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/spanking6to12

Family Resource Library Resources
http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/

A Good Whuppin’? Many Who Survived Childhood Spankings Now Endorse Them, Renewing Debate Over a Peculiar Institution.
http://www.childprotectionreform.org/policy/spanking/washpoststory.htm

Our Children Don’t Deserve to Be Beaten
http://nospank.net/lombardo.htm

Monadnock Area Psychotherapy and Spirituality Services
http://www.mapsnh.org/spanking.html

Family Issue Facts, Spanking, Bulletin 4357
http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/4357.htm

United Nations Committee on Rights of Child
http://www.nospank.net/uncrc.htm

Corporal Punishment Society’s Acceptable Violence Towards Children
http://www.childadvocate.org/1a_research.htm

How Children Really React to Control
http://nospank.net/gordon.htm

Force and Fear Have No Place in Education
http://nospank.net/einstein.htm

Selected Print Medial Coverage
http://www.nospank.net/clips.htm

Let’s Outlaw Any Hitting of Children
http://www.nospank.net/lndsbrg3.htm

Domestic Abuse Organizational and Employee Impact
http://www.newfoundations.com/OrgTheory/Mickles721.html

Plain Talk About Spanking
http://nospank.net/pt2007.htm

This valuable list for advocates who are working to ban violence against children was compiled by James Talbot author of The Road To Positive Discipline: A Parent’s Guide .

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