A bill to ban physical discipline of students in Kentucky passed the state House on Friday, but not before one legislator recounted being paddled by another legislator while he was in school.
House Bill 22 would ban employees and athletic coaches of public and private schools from “the deliberate infliction of severe physical pain on a student” with the intent to punish or discipline, including paddling, striking, shaking or spanking.
Speaking in favor of the bill, Rep. Kevin Bratcher (R-Louisville) recounted an incident from his days at Pleasure Ridge Park High School when he was paddled by his principal — fellow Louisville state Rep. Charles Miller.
“When I was a young man at PRP High School, I believe it was my sophomore year, me and some baseball team members thought it would be a good idea to go sneak out and chew tobacco behind the new gym,” Bratcher said. “And we got busted by the gentleman from Jefferson (District) 28, who is not here today, and he paddled us.”
Bratcher added that all the paddling did “was make us set up a guardsman the next time we did it, so it didn’t really curb the behavior.”
When HB 22 passed out of committee on Tuesday, Miller voted for its passage, recounting that he paddled students as an educator.
The bill passed the House by a 65-17 vote and now heads to the Senate. No legislators from Louisville voted against the legislation.
Kentucky is one of 19 states to still allow corporal punishment of school students. In the 2018-19 school year, there were 284 reported incidents of corporal punishment in 14 Kentucky school districts, most of which were in eastern Kentucky.
Rep. Maria Sorolis, D-Louisville, voted for the bill, saying that physical punishment teaches children that violence is a way to solve problems.
“A child learns what he lives — a child lives with violence, he will learn to fight,” Sorolis said. “We are sophisticated enough now that we can teach and discipline, to discipline, rather than to merely punish. And if we want to stem the tide of violence among our adult population, we need to begin in our schools.”
Former Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat, was present for the passage of the bill, which he had sponsored in 2017.
Wayne told The Courier Journal that Bratcher recounted the same story in 2017 as an example to demonstrate why he was opposed to the bill, which he said “is a sign that attitudes have really shifted on this issue.”
The legislation contains a provision excluding “spontaneous physical contact intended to protect a student from immediate danger” and “reasonable athletic and military training” from the definition of what constitutes prohibited corporal punishment.
–30–
Written by Joe Sonka. Cross-posted from the
Courier-Journal via the Kentucky Press News Service.