Return of spanking in Missouri school district highlights a lingering and unequal practice

Majority of states that permit corporal punishment are in the south, particularly in districts in poorer, rural areas and with a high proportion of Black children

When Ellen Reddy learned of a predominantly white school district in south-west Missouri that reinstated corporal punishment as a last resort for disciplining students, Reddy, who raised two Black boys and is a grandmother, became upset. Even in modern day US, Black children like her grandchildren are still twice as likely to be beaten in schools than white children.

The return of corporal punishment in Cassville, Missouri, where school board officials once abandoned the practice in 2001, departs from a national decline in the use of corporal punishment in schools.