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PADDLING IN SCHOOLS

Slow to Respond

Another due-process issue involved corporal punishment in school. James Ingraham was a student at Drew Junior High School in Dade County, Florida, in the fall of 1970. On 6 October 1970 Ingraham did not leave the stage in the school auditorium as quickly as his teacher expected when the teacher asked. Ingraham was sent to the principal's office for a paddling. He protested his innocence and refused to submit to the punishment. Two assistant principals held him over a table while the principal hit him twenty times with a paddle. Ingraham went to the hospital and was out of school for two weeks as a result.

Cruel and Unusual?

Many students at Drew had similar stories. The principals continued to beat the children after their parents objected. The parents decided to sue. They claimed that the school discipline violated the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. They also claimed that the paddling violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because the students did not get some kind of hearing to determine whether they had violated the rules.

Decision

The Supreme Court announced its decision in the case on 19 April 1977. The Court decided with a five-to-four vote that the schools could paddle children. The Court also decided that requiring hearings would disrupt the school atmosphere and the value of the immediacy of discipline.

Limiting the Due-Process Revolution

In allowing corporal punishment the Supreme Court was in accord with what many Americans believed. Eighty percent of school districts allowed corporal punishment, though its use was on the decline. And many Americans thought it was a good idea. Because of that support, the Supreme Court decided that the full due-process revolution would not reach to the schools.