An Arkansas teen says he was paddled for taking part in National Walkout Day after being given the choice between suspension or corporal punishment.Jerusalem Greer tweeted: "My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative, public school for 17 minutes today. They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around."The walkouts, which students participated in nationwide, were to protest gun violence. The event marked the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. KARK reached out to Greenbrier Public Schools, and the superintendent confirmed that three students participated in the walkout. He clarified that students were not reprimanded for protesting, but rather for breaking school handbook rules in regard to leaving class.The students were indeed given the choice of suspension, or corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is a paddling and must be approved by a parent. One of the students involved, Wylie A. Greer, released a statement on the incident to the Daily Beast, which can be read here. He said the punishment was carried out by the dean-of-students while the assistant principal watched. "I believe that corporal punishment has no place in schools, even if it wasn’t painful to me. The idea that violence should be used against someone who was protesting violence as a means to discipline them is appalling," he wrote, in part.According to Greenbrier Public Schools' official policy, the school board “authorizes the use of corporal punishment to be administered in accordance with this policy by the Superintendent or his/her designated staff members who are required to have a state-issued license as a condition of their employment.”Community residents say they understand the punishment. "Well I've had a child who chose corporal punishment instead of suspension over cellphone usage years ago," Melissa Hester said. "If they break the rules then that's one of the rules then I'm fine with it.""I mean, I raised my kids in the '60s and '70s. They got paddled at school, they got twice as much when they came home," Ethel Rhyne said. Forty-one percent of Arkansas students attend a school that allows paddling. An effort by lawmakers to ban the practice failed last year.
Greenbrier, AR — An Arkansas teen says he was paddled for taking part in National Walkout Day after being given the choice between suspension or corporal punishment.
Jerusalem Greer tweeted: "My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative, public school for 17 minutes today. They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around."
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The walkouts, which students participated in nationwide, were to protest gun violence. The event marked the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.
KARK reached out to Greenbrier Public Schools, and the superintendent confirmed that three students participated in the walkout. He clarified that students were not reprimanded for protesting, but rather for breaking school handbook rules in regard to leaving class.
The students were indeed given the choice of suspension, or corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is a paddling and must be approved by a parent.
One of the students involved, Wylie A. Greer, released a statement on the incident to the Daily Beast, which can be read here. He said the punishment was carried out by the dean-of-students while the assistant principal watched.
"I believe that corporal punishment has no place in schools, even if it wasn’t painful to me. The idea that violence should be used against someone who was protesting violence as a means to discipline them is appalling," he wrote, in part.
According to Greenbrier Public Schools' official policy, the school board “authorizes the use of corporal punishment to be administered in accordance with this policy by the Superintendent or his/her designated staff members who are required to have a state-issued license as a condition of their employment.”
Community residents say they understand the punishment.
"Well I've had a child who chose corporal punishment instead of suspension over cellphone usage years ago," Melissa Hester said. "If they break the rules then that's one of the rules then I'm fine with it."
"I mean, I raised my kids in the '60s and '70s. They got paddled at school, they got twice as much when they came home," Ethel Rhyne said.
Forty-one percent of Arkansas students attend a school that allows paddling. An effort by lawmakers to ban the practice failed last year.
