Wyoming schools hardly ever use corporal punishment these days — but state statutes still grant teachers and school administrators total legal immunity in the event that they spank or paddle a child.
Senate File 47 seeks to eliminate that de-facto legal protection for school officials who hit children. The bill has advanced all the way through the Senate and on Mon. Feb. 13,, it cleared another hurdle, advancing out of the House Education Committee with a unanimous vote.
The bill has been shepherded by Tongue River Middle School principal Jeff Jones, who wrote his 2021 doctoral dissertation on the topic of corporal punishment in Wyoming public schools.
Jones told the committee he interviewed every school district in the state and found the overwhelming majority did not use or even allow corporal punishment.
"One administrator perhaps put it best, stating it's pretty hard to teach, 'keep your hands to yourself' if we're not doing it when it comes to discipline,'" Jones said.
He admitted the practice of corporal punishment is rare in Wyoming schools today. Jones said some districts were even surprised to learn their district policy still allowed it. Many of those districts moved to change their own policies after speaking with Jones.
"I'm happy to report that as of this morning, only three districts still allow corporal punishment in their policy," he said. "I believe the time is coming when no districts will allow it in policy whether this bill passes or not."
To be clear, the bill before the Wyoming Legislature does not ban corporal punishment in schools. It simply eliminates the de-facto legal protection for school officials.
While it's not in the scope of the bill, Jones said times have changed and the evidence is now clear that corporal punishment is useless or worse in the pursuit of discipline.
"That was a different time in our society and it may not be fair to judge decisions 20 years ago through the lens we have today," Jones said. "However, to take the same stance in 2023 would be to ignore a staggering amount of science showing the ineffectiveness of this practice. Research at this point is overwhelming, revealing that it is not only ineffective but it frequently increases the likelihood of misbehavior in our most challenging students."
There was little other testimony on the bill and it passed quickly out of the committee with a unanimous vote. It now heads to the House floor for further debate.
