Oklahoma strikes down bill to end corporal punishment for students with disabilities

Oklahoma lawmakers struck down a bill Tuesday that, if passed, would have ended the use of corporal punishment on students with disabilities.

Corporal punishment is defined in the bill as “the deliberate infliction of physical pain by hitting, beating, spanking, slapping or any other physical force used as a means of discipline”. The legislation would have prohibited the use of this form of punishment on disabled students in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The vote on the bill was 45-43 in favor of its passage, according to KFOR. But the bill ultimately failed because a majority of 51 lawmakers was needed to pass it.

Rep. John Talley (R) authored the bill, stating that physical punishment of disabled students “does not belong in the classroom” and that “responsibility and grace go hand in hand,” reports KFOR. But other Republicans voted against the bill, with some citing scripture as justification.

“Proverbs 29: ‘The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but an abandoned child shames its mother,’” Rep. Jim Olsen (R) sayingadding that the Biblical line appears to “endorse the use of corporal punishment.”

He too provided an example from a voter who said her disabled son “did not respond to positive encouragement” but “responded very well to corporal punishment.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Cyndi Munson (D), who voted for the bill, spoke about her experiences with child abuse and why corporal punishment should be banned.

“My mother used chopsticks to pat me on the back… She would pull my hair to make me listen to her, to make me behave,” she said. sayingadding that she spent more than a decade working with psychologists and therapists to overcome her childhood trauma.

She said her father used positive reinforcement and kind talk to encourage her and her siblings to behave. But she added that the amount of love he gave her was, though not her fault, enough to make up for the way her mother treated them.

“So imagine a child going to school, who doesn’t ‘behave,’” he said. “Whether he has a disability or not, a child must go to a safe place.”

According to the Hechinger Report19 states, including Oklahoma, allow the use of corporal punishment on public school students. Nationally, more than 69,000 students almost received corporal punishment 97,000 times during the 2017-18 school year.

A recent study found that out of the estimated 291 million disabled children and adolescents worldwide, almost a third of them have experienced violence, NPR reports. Furthermore, according to American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)Disabled students face disproportionately high rates of corporal punishment across the country, often subjected to it as a form of discipline for behaviors related to their disabilities and conditions, such as Tourette syndrome and autism.

For example, in Tennessee, students with disabilities are expelled at more than twice the rate of the general student population. But ACLU stated that these statistics are likely an underestimate of the violence students with disabilities face because there is no mandatory reporting of the many types of corporal punishment that occur.

The use of force and harmful punishment is not a new or uncommon experience for people with disabilities, advocates say. For example, the author smith noted in a cheep responding to the failure of the Oklahoma bill alleging that the Judge Rotenberg Education Center in Massachusetts has been using electric shock devices in autism students, despite attempts of decades of plead to put an end to it.

According to the Disability Rights and Education Fund (DREDF), children use behavior to communicate their needs. As a result, they risk losing educational benefits by inappropriately disciplining, suspending, or placing them in restrictive environments.

Instead, schools across the US have adopted Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a evidence-based tiered framework used to support the behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of students and greatly benefits disabled students.