I remember the coaches of gym used to paddle people messing around in the locker room. They used to paddle them in the showers. That was the loudest pop I can remember. They would lay down the hurt. Then, those people who got paddled would have to come out in front of everyone in the locker room so the school crowd could then gauge the toughness of that person as either "puss" or "non-puss". More often than not they would be swelling up with tears or flat out crying. I'm sure they had some big bruises back there, too. Since I was only ever threatened with paddling once, I never really contemplated what other forms of punishment would happen other than the one I had which was basically a free pass from class. I guess if it came down to suspension or detention outside of school hours...I would take the paddle as well. Per our coaches during gym, I don't think they would care what your feelings are on the subject. They would just "swing away, Merrill".
Agreed. I was talking last month to a high school teacher at my former high school in Waco, and she told me that they're still giving swats to this day. I thought that it had been phased out everywhere, but that's not the case. Back in the day some of the coaches could really bring some pain...
I got paddled at Bleyl Jr High in the early 80's. It was always for the same thing.....beating on the desks and tables. The thing was, I had a female assistant principal so.....I kind of got off on it....
I'd really like to hear from some people who were in middle school and high school in HISD in the '90s and '00s.
Yes, I went to a Catholic school for 13 years, and was paddled in my early years, it was never by a nun though. We had this one mean nun that threatened to "box my ears", damn she was mean.
i went to Moore Elementary in PISD in the mid 80s and they threatened us with the paddle but i never really got in trouble and didn't know of anyone that it happened to. i do somewhat recall bringing a note home for your parents to sign if you didn't wanna get paddled.
Graduated from high school in middle Tennessee in 1991. Never got paddled in high school and if I remember right, my high school might have phased out paddling by the time I got there, replacing it with stuff like in school suspension and out of school suspension (that was for major offenses) and deportment cuts for minor stuff. I got paddled 5 times in my life that I can remember: 2 times in the 1st grade (which was like '79 and '80), once in the 5th grade, once in the 6th grade, and once in the 8th grade (junior high school). Of the 2 paddlings that I got in 1st grade, I think only 1 was really justified as I was goofing off during rest time. The other one was mainly because my teacher was on the rag, I think, and pissed at the world (she paddled everybody that day except for the 3 pets of the class). The paddling I got in 5th grade was definitely justified as me and a buddy of mine were spitting on each other and then spit on this one guy that everybody hated (he spit back on us). Of course, we spit back on him and he told on us...stoolpigeon. So, all 3 of us got paddled (and that one probably hurt the most because my teacher, a man, about hit me in the lower back instead of my ass). Ironically, I have remained good friends with him to this day (he is a little over 70) and talked to him just last night. The 6th grade paddling was a bogus one as I got caught whispering "what" when the lights were off (which meant no talking). Like my 1st grade teacher, I think my 6th grade teacher was on the rag as she was in an obvious pissed off mood that day. She wound up paddling me with 2 other guys in front of the whole freaking class! Which I believe is a no-no, but I never did anything about that. The last paddling I got was from my 6th grade teacher's husband who was also my science teacher in 8th grade and my football coach. He was known to have very bad mood swings and I caught him on a bad day. He took a comment I said to a friend of mine the wrong way and felt I was making fun of him. So he paddled me. That one pissed me off to no end. It was the only time that my father did not spank me (he had this rule that if I or my sister got a paddling at school, it meant an automatic spanking from him when we got home...of course, that is assuming we would tell him which my sister did not a lot of times). Actually, the spankings I got from my father hurt far WORSE than the paddlings I got. Ah, memory lane - thanks gifford for giving me the opportunity to reminesce (sp?). Anyway, I will say that I don't think there is anything wrong with paddling as long as it used wisely. Paddling someone for like bringing scissors to school is stupid just like it is for whispering "what" with the lights turned off (ironically my 6th grade teacher and 8th grade science teacher live down the street from me and mow my yard about every 10 days), if you get what I am saying.
Never got paddled and I never saw anyone get paddled, twas not allowed. I can't imagine how anybody would feel comfortable with teachers and principals spanking their kids.
I got paddled in 7th grade back in 1994 for talking too much in gym class. Hurt like hell, too. It was in the small, East Texas hick town of Mt. Pleasant, but if they were still doing it ten years ago, I reckon it continues today.
Yes, sometimes in front of the class...this was back in the early 80's. Then I would go home and get whipped again.
Yes, multiple times, all in junior high in the early '80s. But if you knew in advance, you could wear extra layers of underwear. It still didn't help much. The vice principal's Jokari paddle was the most feared. "Grab your ankles and look straight ahead...."
I wonder if that was the same paddle I saw at Pershing when I went there is '86. I never experienced it myself. I always got detention. Good God, that man was there way back then?
I went to public school till 1985. I remember kids talking about paddling, but I was a good kid so it never came up for me. 1986 to 1993, I went to a private school. They did no corporeal punishment.
I've never been touched by a teacher or seen a teacher touch a student (except perhaps hold a very young child's hand crossing the street on a field trip). When I was doing substitute teaching in Chicago the 3 and 4 year olds would crawl onto my lap and even that would make me nervous about potential litigation.
I feel that if a parent agrees to let a teacher, coach or principal swat their kid, then let them. However, it shouldn't be a blanket practice. You have to give the parents the option. I, for one, will be able to punish my kids myself, without the help of any idiot at a school who may just have it out for my kid (which I saw quite a bit of when I was in school).
