Which states let you hit students? (Hint: one of them is Indiana)

By Andrew Pillow

The debate around corporal punishment in schools is heating up. Many groups are seeking for corporal punishment to be dealt away with. Secretary of Education John King weighed in on the situation as well.

“School-sponsored corporal punishment is not only ineffective, it is a harmful practice, and one that disproportionally impacts students of color and students with disabilities,” King wrote. “This practice has no place in the public schools of a modern nation that plays such an essential role in the advancement and protection of civil and human rights.”

In conventional terms corporal punishment is best defined as inflicting pain as a form of consequence. So how many states allow corporal punishment? According to the data from the department of education, twenty-two states. Twenty-eight states don’t not allow corporal punishment; the remaining states fall into the category of either expressly allowing it or not forbidding it. Indiana falls into the latter.

Read more and see a visual representation of the data here. (NPR)