Audio By Carbonatix
Since allegations surfaced that NFL star Adrian Peterson abused multiple children at his Texas home, debate has swirled between pro- and anti-spanking parents. For the majority of North Texas schools, though, there’s no question: Spare the rod, spoil the child is official district disciplinary policy in all but a handful of DFW districts.
The actual percentage of paddled or spanked kids varies from district to district. Some more actively employ the punishment than others: In Wylie ISD, for example, the district has an official policy in place allowing administrators to use corporal punishment, but district employees rarely spank or paddle. Meanwhile, DeSoto ISD is much more eager to dole out physical punishment, paddling students more than 200 times last year.
See also: The DeSoto School District Paddled Students 227 Times Last Year, But Won’t Say How or Why
At least four individual schools that are unaffiliated with any district — Liberty Christian Academy, Bethany Christian School, A.W. Brown-Fellowship Charter School, and Texas Leadership Charter Academy in Arlington — have also been reported to administer corporal punishment to students. Where in most districts parents can opt out of corporal punishment, Liberty Christian students must agree to paddling policies — which they can receive for offenses as minor as “discourtesy,” or the failure to be overtly polite.
We listed and mapped out area schools that have active corporal punishment policies in place — although, sadly, it would have been much easier just to list the districts that have prohibitions against corporal punishment.
Dallas County
DeSoto ISD
Duncanville ISD
Grand Prairie ISD
Lancaster ISD
Collin County
Princeton ISD
Celina ISD
Prosper ISD
Blue Ridge ISD
Wylie ISD
Farmersville ISD
Community ISD
Melissa ISD
Bland ISD
Leonard ISD
Trenton ISD
Van Alstyne ISD
Whitewright ISD
Ellis County
Ennis ISD
Midlothian ISD
Waxahachie ISD
Maypearl ISD
Ferris ISD
Italy ISD
Avalon ISD
Tarrant County
Everman ISD
Azle ISD
Eagle-Mountain-Saginaw ISD
Kennedale ISD
Burleson ISD
White Settlement ISD
Castleberry ISD
Godley ISD
Denton County
Lake Dallas ISD
Krum ISD
Ponder ISD
Sanger ISD
Slidell ISD
Kaufman County
Scurry-Rosser ISD
Crandall ISD
Kaufman ISD
Terrell ISD
Rockwall County
Royse City ISD
Rockwall ISD
