Hardeman County Ends Corporal Punishment in Schools

The Hardeman County School Board reviewed or made updates to numerous policies, including corporal punishment, at its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, August 10, 2023. All board members were present for the meeting.

The corporal punishment policy was first brought up for discussion at the school board’s June meeting with a plan to address again at the next meeting.

After months of consideration and review, school board members decided to terminate the policy all together, doing away with all forms of corporal punishment in Hardeman County Schools.

Director Dr. Christy Smith stated, “The requirements have changed.” She continued, “In addition to the other steps you have to take before administering corporal punishment, now you have Part D, you have to ‘consider the need to conduct an evaluation to determine whether the student has a disability per federal law’. That is an extremely lengthy process.”

Dr. Smith also shared, “When I asked the question, we only have two [principals] that would even consider using it.”

A motion was made by Patricia Carter to remove corporal punishment from their policy. The motion was seconded by Terry King. The board unanimously approved the motion.

It was said at the meeting that Bolivar Middle School is the only school in the district that has utilized corporal punishment in the past two years, as many principals have already decided to use an alternative form of punishment.

Other policies that were discussed or changed included, attendance, personal communication devices, code of ethics, school board meetings, notification of meetings, appeals and appearances to the board, emergency preparedness plan, security, summer school, extracurricular activities, library materials, family medical leave act, zero tolerance, student surveys, physical exams and immunizations, and home schools.

You may watch the full school board meeting below.

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