pegmom, isnt there dept of homeland 'security of children', or similar, in DC? sorry if youve already menitnoed going to washington, but if oprah wont listen, maybe instead have folks swamp their congressperson with emials, letters, phone calls.

dont kmow, just brainstorming.

Well, what if we all bombard Oprah with the show idea? there is no telling how many emails and show ideas she gets in a day, but if we all go on there, maybe that will increase the odds of someone seeing it and actually looking into it.
I did mine already.

thanks lucella for highlighting the backwards states of our union! awesome insight. very sad commentary for 2006. i had NO idea the practice is still 'acceptable' ie so widespread.

random thoughts for first post-er: maybe the lead in line should be not corporal punishment, but child torture? would that get oprahs attention?

on bullying (its way more than that), the site dontlaugh.org (foounded by peter , of peter paul and mary fame) is useful for KIDS.
for the adults, if htey are bullies and in a position of authority, thats a tough one.
the options to me short of quick legislatvie action would be home shdcooling or private schooling.
one should never appease, or tolerate, a bully. least of all, when its against ones child. anyway, kudos to you for doing the right thing.

"All it needs for evil to prosper is for people of goodwill to do nothing" (Edmund Burke)

Hi Peggy- Just me again. I found this great site, not sure if you are familiar w/this group or not-The Center for Effective Dicipline (stophitting.com). If you click on the "News" section, at the very top of the page is a clip about a UN Study from August 23, 2006. It will be reviewed, debated and adopted by the UN General Assembly in the next couple of months.
It is extremely long & I have not had a chance to read the entirety, but Section III B. relates to violence in schools. Thought you might like to check this out if you haven't already. There may be some sort of theoretical light at the end of the tunnel.

[ 09-17-2006, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: Lucella ]

Lucella,

Great job on presenting factual data! Thanks for doing that.
I am actually travelling to Raleigh, NC tomorrow, our capital city, and meeting with fellow advocates. One topic that we will discuss is corporal punishment, and I do have a legislator willing to introduce legislation here in NC.
We need help in other states, as you can see from the list above.
One of my main reasons for coming to the PTO forum was to engage members in this chatter, and see if PTO's can form position statements. PTA is a national organization that has a position statement supporting a ban, so PTO seems like a natural place to turn.

I actually answered my own question on this one.
Check out where your state stands. I was happy to see that my state, Maine, has banned corporal punishment in schools, but saddened and enraged to see that 22!!!! states in the union still allow this!!!

Alabama--Legal
Alaska--Illegal
Arizona--Legal
Arkansas--Legal
California--Illegal
Colorado--Legal
Connecticut--Illegal
Delaware--Illegal
District of Columbia--N/A
Florida--Legal
Georgia--Legal
Hawaii--Illegal
Idaho--Legal
Illinois--Illegal
Indiana--Legal
Iowa--Illegal
Kansas--Legal
Kentucky--Legal
Louisiana--Legal
Maine--Illegal
Maryland--Illegal
Massachusetts--Illegal
Michigan--Illegal
Minnesota--Illegal
Mississippi--Legal
Missouri--Legal
Montana--Illegal
Nebraska--Illegal
Nevada--Illegal
New Hampshire--Illegal
New Jersey--Illegal
New Mexico--Legal
New York--Illegal
North Carolina--Legal
North Dakota--Illegal
Ohio--Legal
Oklahoma--Legal
Oregon--Illegal
Pennsylvania--Legal
Rhode Island--Restricted*
South Carolina--Legal
South Dakota--Illegal
Tennessee--Legal
Texas--Legal
Utah--Illegal
Vermont--Illegal
Virginia--Illegal
Washington--Illegal
West Virginia--Illegal
Wisconsin--Illegal
Wyoming--Legal
* banned by every school board in the state

[ 09-17-2006, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Lucella ]