Kansas State Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, has proposed a controversial bill that would allow parents, caregivers and school officials to spank children up to 10 times and to the point of leaving marks.
Introduced just this month, House Bill 2699 expands the limits of an existing law that allows spanking but not to the point of bruising or redness.
The proposal reads like a corrections department document, with words like “conviction,” “deception,” “conduct” and “corporal punishment” defining its terms. It would allow spanking for all students — even those over the age of 18.
“‘Corporal punishment’ means up to ten forceful applications in succession of a bare, open-hand palm against the clothed buttocks of a child and any such reasonable physical force on the child as may be necessary to hold, restrain or control the child in the course of maintaining authority over the child, acknowledging that redness or bruising may occur on the tender skin of a child as a result. As used in this subsection ‘child’ includes a person over the age of 18 who is enrolled in high school,” according to the proposed bill.
McPherson Deputy County Attorney Britt Colle introduced the idea for the proposed bill to Finney.
“This bill basically defines a spanking along with necessary reasonable physical restraint that goes with discipline, all of which has always been legal,” Colle told Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV5. “The bill rules out hitting children with fists, a belt or a switch, or hitting them on the head or the body other than the buttocks.”
Opposition has formed around the bill, bolstered by studies showing that using physical force against or on children can lead them to become more aggressive adults with communication issues.
“Twenty, 30 years ago, we didn’t sit in car seats, and we do now,” Amy Terreros, a pediatric nurse practitioner and child abuse expert at Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital, told KCTV5. “So maybe they did spank or were spanked as a child, but now we have research that shows it is less effective than time out. It tends to lead to more aggressive behavior with a child.”
Does it sound twisted to give more muscle and reach to an existing spanking bill? It sure does.
But remember: Kansas is a state that banned the teaching of evolution for decades and only barely killed a recent proposal to protect people and organizations refusing to do business with same-sex couples.
Fortunately for young Kansans, it is illegal for anyone to hit a child with fists, in the head or body or with a belt or switch.
The students of Kansas, however, are not the only ones subjected to school spanking. Other states that allow spanking in schools include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.