From the Florida Dept. of Education report on trends in corporal punishment- a little food for thought at dinnertime. Scroll through the report and there is a table showing the incidences of corporal punishment by county. Anyone want to guess which region of Florida has the highest number of reported incidences? The stats are from 2006-2007- wonder if any current stats are available. I did get any encouraging note from someone who would know today- paddling does not happen in South Walton from what they know. Is this a cultural battle here, and if so, what culture promotes kitting kids in 2011?
From the report-
Corporal punishment is defined by Florida Statutes as the moderate use of physical force or physical contact by a teacher or principal to maintain discipline or to enforce school rules.
The school board shall have the authority to prohibit the use of corporal punishment, provided that the school board adopts or has adopted a written program of alternative control or discipline (s. 1006.07(1), Florida Statutes).
Over the past fifteen years, the use of corporal punishment by Florida school districts has drastically decreased (see table below). For the 2006-07 school year, there were 5,245 incidents of corporal punishment, compared to 24,198 in 1991-92. This represents a cumulative decrease of over 78 percent.
In 2006-07, 29 school districts reported students receiving corporal punishment. In 1988-89, all 67 school districts administered corporal punishment. (Note that these figures reflect how many times discipline was administered, not the number of students receiving the discipline). In 1989-90, seven districts (Broward, Charlotte, Dade, Martin, Monroe, Palm Beach, and Sarasota) reported no use of corporal punishment. This was the first year that any district reported no use of corporal punishment at all. Since then, districts have steadily reported fewer incidences of corporal punishment. The most significant decrease in the last 15 years occurred between 2004-05 and 2005-06 with 29.9 percent fewer incidents of corporal punishment reported.
http://www.fldoe.org/eias/eiaspubs/pdf/discipline.pdf