Mom Says School Spanking "Crossed The Line"

By: Connie LeGrand/News Channel 7 | News Channel 7
Published: January 28, 2008

North and South Carolina are among less than a dozen states which do not ban corporal punishment in schools. Although policies vary from district to district, there are schools which still paddle students. A mom in Western North Carolina says on December 13, 2008, the practice went too far.

Elizabeth Stevens of Nebo, NC says her 12-year-old son was paddled while attending Phoenix Academy in McDowell County. She admits he got into trouble sometimes, and she allowed the District to paddle him. She says prior to December, it never caused marks. She says the last time was different. "He had pink bruises on his buttock area. He had a full paddle mark across his butt. He had burst blood vessels. I'd never seen anything like it." Stevens, who is a nurse, took pictures and filed a complaint with the McDowell County Sheriff's Office. An investigation found accusations of possible child abuse “unfounded”, according to an incident report and the case was marked “closed”.

Last week Stevens took her concerns to the School Board asking them to consider banning corporal punishment in McDowell County schools. She says, “What's enough, but what's too much? Apparently on the day that Joey was paddled, that line was crossed.” Today we spoke with McDowell County School District Superintendent Dr. Ira Trollinger, who says he is not permitted to talk about individual cases. He did say he has not found any evidence of wrong-doing in any paddling cases this school year, and that the School District will not consider altering its policy at this time. “We do use it, and it is in our policy and many of our Board members feel strongly that we ought to keep it in our policy. North Carolina law allows us to do that, but we don't use it that often."