The Law’s Stance on Corporal Punishment in Oklahoma
Corporal punishment remains a lawful disciplinary measure in Oklahoma, provided it is not administered in a cruel or unusual manner. State law does not directly address corporal punishment, but neither does it prohibit its administration by school officials.
In 1995, the Oklahoma legislature enacted 70 O.S. § 24-101b, which provides:
A local board of education or other school authority shall adopt a policy regarding the use of corporal punishment in the local school district relating to grades prekindergarten through eight (Pre-K-8). Such policy shall not allow the use of corporal punishment unless such punishment is reasonably administered in a reasonable manner. No employee of a school district shall administer corporal punishment upon a student unless the employee has received prior written authorization from the principal or site administrator and such authorization is on file with the principal or site administrator. The policy shall provide for notification to the student’s parent or legal guardian of each instance of corporal punishment administered to their child. Corporal punishment shall not be administered by school district employees except in full compliance with school policies as adopted by the local board of education. Corporal punishment shall not be administered to children in grades nine through twelve (9-12) . Nothing in this section, in which parents grant permission, shall be construed as preventing a parent from administering corporal punishment to their own child. The Oklahoma legislature addressed corporal punishment by statute in 1985. The law specifies that it is not to be construed as permitting corporal punishment and does not alter parental rights with respect to the right to counsel for their children. Sorey v. Nutt, 896 P.2d 1244, 1246 (Okla. 1995). The law specifies, rather, that the provision is expressly not to be considered as permitting corporal punishment and that it is not to alter the rights of parents with respect to the right to counsel for their children. Id. The law requires a local school district board of education to promulgate a policy related to corporal punishment, and such policy must provide for due process. In Felts v. Board of Education, 885 P.2d 646, 648 (Okla. App. 1994), the Court of Civil Appeals held that a School Board did not have to establish guidelines setting out what constitutes abuse, and that the statute does not impose requirements for a ‘predetermined number of swats’ and ‘separating the offender before paddling.’ However, the Court noted that the statute clearly establishes that the paddling must be reasonable in its phrasing requiring that it be conducted ‘in a reasonable manner.’ 841 P.2d 569 (Okla. 1992).
The History of Corporal Punishment in Oklahoma
Oklahoma is one of the 19 states in the country that has not abolished corporal punishment in educational settings as of 2019. It is therefore useful to trace the historical context of how corporal punishment came to be accepted as a form of punishment in schools in Oklahoma and elsewhere, at least since the turn of the 20th century. It is also generally useful to give the legal foundations for the continued acceptance of corporal punishment in Oklahoma.
Analyzing the legal context for the use of corporal punishment in schools in Oklahoma requires a start with the common law tradition that developed in England prior to the founding of the United States and Oklahoma. Since the founding of the United States, American courts, including Oklahoma courts, have often given great deference to the legislatures. The Supreme Court of Oklahoma has deferred to legislative acts in several cases regarding the authority of a school district to administer corporal punishment. Like many other areas of law and practice, the law concerning the use of corporal punishment in schools is based on precedent. Precedent both from New York in the 19th century, and Oklahoma decisions from the 20th century, have been cited as authority by courts in Oklahoma allowing the use of corporal punishment.
Given the common law tradition and the legal precedents, it is useful to trace the history of perceptions about corporal punishment among the public to understand the climate in which certain laws were enacted and maintained. During the early and mid-20th century, it was common for adults to maintain the view that corporal punishment was an acceptable and often effective means of disciplining children. Other adults maintained the opposite opinion, that hitting children was physically and psychologically damaging to children. While in Western literature, this debate often involved adults disagreeing with one another as to what was best for children, this debate shifted toward the latter half of the 20th century, as there were more voices in favor of maintaining corporal punishment, from within the ranks of child psychology itself. During this time, the use of corporal punishment became more intertwined with the issue of race, as African American students were often subjected to greater levels of corporal punishment, and also as African American parents sought to stop corporal punishment as an accepted disciplinary option. By the late 20th century, studies showed that more parents, including parents themselves who had received corporal punishment as children, were going away from the use of corporal punishment as a means of punishment within the home. As for the legal treatment of corporal punishment, while early efforts to ban corporal punishment in schools did not succeed, by the late 20th century, a number of states had already banned corporal punishment.
By the end of the 20th century, discard of corporal punishment was becoming more common among states in the United States. By 2000, 29 of 50 states had on the books some type of statutory or constitutional ban on the use of corporal punishment in schools. The position of the American Psychological Association opposing the use of corporal punishment in schools was adopted in 1991, and subsequently reaffirmed in 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2016. As of October 2019, 19 states still have not succeeded in banning corporal punishment, which will likely change soon given that the American Academy of Pediatrics now advocates against corporal punishment in 2018. As of October 2019, Oklahoma remains one of the 19 states that have not banned corporal punishment.
Schools and Corporal Punishment
Oklahoma law allows for the use of corporal punishment in schools. However, the law is strict about how corporal punishment is to be used and who will administer it. Furthermore, if a school board plans to allow corporal punishment, the board must pass a resolution in which it establishes guidelines for its use. Okla. Stat. tit. 70, § 24-101.3. More specifically, the law provides:
"Corporal punishment shall be administered in accordance with rules and regulations of the local board of education, which shall be in writing, a copy of which shall be made available for public inspection in the office of the superintendent of the school district. No person employed by a school district shall resort to corporal punishment unless such action is in conformity with the rules and regulations of the local board of education."
Okla. Stat. tit. 70, § 24-101.3(A).
Corporal punishment can only be administered by the building principal or his or her designee. Okla. Stat. tit. 70, § 24-101.3(B). In addition, "no teacher or other employee of a school district shall use corporal punishment on any student unless such student’s parent or guardian has given to the principal of the school district written consent for the principal or his or her designee to administer corporal punishment, which consent shall be effective throughout the duration of enrollment of said student in the school district." Okla. Stat. tit. 70, § 24-101.3(C).
Domestic Environments and Corporal Punishment
Corporal punishment is a concept that has shifted significantly over generations. In Oklahoma, the law does not prevent a parent or other legal guardian from spanking a child, although there certainly are limits. In terms of the law regulating physical punishment of minors in domestic settings, spankings or other forms of corporal punishment are legal as long as the punishment does not cause both serious harm and physical injury. In other words, a parent may not cause injury to a child or cause long-term physical harm to a child; otherwise, this behavior could be regarded as child abuse. Generally, if the action might cause serious harm or a reasonable observer could interpret it as harmful, a court may ignore a parent’s explanation about the reason for the spankings and assume that the behavior was abusive.
Spanking or beating may not legally take place in a public place or in the presence of another child, or else a judge may regard this as a form of domestic violence, whether or not the child or other person is injured or witnesses the physical discipline. The law is less forgiving when the victim is another adult than it is when the victim is another child, partly because physical discipline may have an adverse psychological effect on younger children, as their brains are still developing and are most vulnerable to abusive experiences.
Public Perception and Activism
In Oklahoma, public opinion concerning corporal punishment in schools is largely divided among various groups. Most commonly, this division falls along the lines of education advocacy organizations and parent groups, with those in the former camp advocating for an outright ban on the practice and defense attorneys and parent groups advocating for its continued use. National organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Psychological Association have all come out in opposition to the practice since it contributes to further discipline problems in youths. National advocacy groups have also taken great interest in the practice, with organizations such as the National PTA and the National School Boards Association coming out against the practice, recognizing the need for alternative discipline practices.
Generally, public campaigns against the practice have been most successful. In particular, a coordinated effort employing both electronic and traditional media by various advocacy and community organizations has proven most effective in spreading the message to lawmakers and citizens alike. In California , for example, the Devil Paddlers, a group dedicated to the abolishing of corporal punishment in schools, utilizes social media platforms to reach students and parents across the state. Many community and grassroots organizations have also taken interest in campaigning against the practice. In both Kentucky and Texas, groups have organized around the idea that schools should be a safe space for children, free from the threat of physical violence from their teachers.
Public campaigns opposing the practice have not only been effective amongst the general populace, but also among lawmakers. Over the past 15 years, 30 states have enacted laws prohibiting the use of corporal punishment in public schools, including California and Kentucky. On the other hand, only two states have enacted laws permitting it, and only one of those states is in the South. Since Southern states tend to use corporal punishment more than other regions, those states without laws specifically banning the practice could have an advantage in passage of further restrictions on corporal punishment.
Legal Perspectives: A Comparative Look
In an effort to fully understand the scope of corporal punishment use in Oklahoma, it is useful to examine and compare its laws and enforcement with those other states which allow for corporal punishment in schools. States vary widely, not only in their statutory language, but also in how their laws are enforced. For example, while corporal punishment is specifically authorized by statutes in Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and Tennessee, it is more common to find statutes simply remaining silent on the subject. Such silence, however, does not necessarily indicate a tacit acceptance of corporal punishment by such states. Instead, many states that do not have statutes authorizing corporal punishment simply enjoin schools from using corporal punishment, especially when it is more injurious than other forms of discipline. Other states appear to have hybrid systems that have various degrees of statutory authorization, and have also considered the utilization of corporal punishment to be unlawful under their state constitution or as a tort in it of itself. In addition to variation in law, states have different cultural attitudes towards the use of corporal punishment in schools that affect their enforcement of it. Most southerly states (Florida, Alabama, North Carolina), have very high rates of corporal punishment usage in schools. Furthermore, the cultural attitudes of parents tend to favor corporal punishment. In contrast, such states as California, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Vermont have high levels of public opposition to corporal punishment. Additionally, most of the states with low rates of corporal punishment are non-southerly states with high levels of opposition to corporal punishment.
Future Implications of Corporal Punishment Regulations
There are likely to be both legal and attitudinal developments surrounding the use of corporal punishment in Oklahoma schools in the future. While there have been active efforts to ban corporal punishment within certain counties in Oklahoma, this has failed due to current Oklahoma law. A newly proposed Oklahoma Bill would ban the use of corporal punishment in public schools as described here.
While there is still room for legal reform, an effective ban on school corporal punishment may ultimately lay in the court of public opinion . There have been shifts across the country as criticism of the use of corporal punishment has grown. This is reflected in a 2015 Gallup poll where the support for corporal punishment dropped to a new low, with only 55% of respondents expressing support for the practice, down from 63% in 1980. As support among some segments of the population continues to wane, it is possible that parent and teacher pressure will lead to a ban or at least self-imposed restrictions on the use of corporal punishment in some school districts.