Beatings only work on the other kids

From a column by Libby Quaid in the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

A quarter of a million schoolchildren got beaten in school last year - and blacks, American Indians, and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment... For the study, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists. Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, two states that account for 40 percent of the 223,190 kids who were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year... In places where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals generally have legal immunity from assault laws, the study said... A majority of states have outlawed it, but corporal punishment remains widespread across the South. Behind Texas and Mississippi were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida, and Missouri. African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.
The study also found:
-In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.
-Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.
-Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.
There is scant research on whether paddling is effective in the classroom. But many studies have shown it doesn't work at home, said Elizabeth Gershoff, a University of Michigan assistant professor of social work. "The use of corporal punishment is associated almost overwhelmingly with negative effects, and that it increases children's problem behavior over time," Gershoff said.

Rico says it worked on him; he was whipped with a belt by his father. It still stings when he recalls it, fifty years on, but he's still pissed about it...