It’s rare for a Barry County school to make national and international headlines, but for the last two weeks, Cassville has made the rounds.

From the Springfield paper to CNN and KY3 to the Guardian in the United Kingdom, the coverage of the district’s re-instatement of its corporal punishment policy was just as disappointing as the policy change itself.

Let me explain.

Reviving a policy abandoned in 2001, the Cassville school district may now “paddle the buttocks” of students facing out-of-school suspension, and so long as the parents have opted into the policy. It’s a click-baity a headline as they come — “Cassville to paddle students” — and though some waded through finer details, most news organizations treated the story as such.

When I called Cassville Superintendent Merlyn Johnson to ask about the policy change, it was clear to me more was going on.

The change was part of an overarching plan to address discipline concerns within the district, determined to be an issue after surveys of staff, students and parents in May.

In the news machine’s fervor to blast a controversial headline, nearly every story left out the months of research, planning and action taken to address discipline full stop.

The excessive coverage of the corporal punishment aspect truly devalued the district’s efforts, and as a journalist, that was tough to see.

News organizations also failed to give any context to the geography. Southwest Missouri is as conservative an area as anywhere in the country, and ‘round these parts, a whippin’ is more often authorized than not.

According to research done by Johnson and Cassville office staff — literally visiting every Missouri school’s website to look at every policy —175 of Missouri’s 515 school districts have a policy authorizing corporal punishment, about 35 percent. Johnson said if you narrow the policies down to smaller, rural districts, that percentage is probably more than half.

Of the eight school districts in The Monett Times and Cassville Democrat coverage areas, five have policies allowing paddling, and three prohibit it.

At one of the smallest districts in the area, the Southwest school district, 13 children were corporally punished last year, one child twice. The remaining districts that allow paddling have not used the policy in some time, but at any time, they could.

To be clear, these are not policies that allow teachers to just pull out a paddle and beat the children. All policies require parental notification and approval, as well as a witness to the act. Most also require a report of what happened and why.

Still, corporal punishment is a largely outdated practice, so does it still have a place in schools?

I was spanked at home as a kid in a structured manner, but corporal punishment was never authorized at any school I attended. Though I don’t spank my children, I do not hold anything against parents that use spanking as a tool, so long as it’s utilized properly.

Schools have always operated “in loco parentis.” If the district is acting “in place of a parent” and said parent spanks their children, why can’t the school? Leaving aside the mountains of studies showing the detriments of corporal punishment in schools — and the equally compelling lack of studies showing its merits — I have some other concerns about the pain- and fear-based method.

In Cassville, for example, handing out licks is limited to the four building principals — Mindi Gates at the primary school, Jeff Swadley at the intermediate school, Darren Rhea at the middle school and Tyler Willis at the high school.

Are these individuals comfortable with carrying out corporal punishment at the request of a parent? If they are not, should they be compelled to carry out that punishment anyway?

Furthermore, three of the principals are men. Although it is required for the witness to be a woman when the child receiving corporal punishment is a female, is Principal Swadley comfortable with swatting a 10-year-old girl, or is Principal Willis comfortable with swatting a 16-year-old girl? Is it socially appropriate for either of those instances to occur?

Other issues permeate the policy. Johnson said Cassville staff know about the home lives of their children, and they will not use corporal punishment on a child they know is suffering physical or mental abuse at home. As much trust as I have in the administration, it’s a big risk to not know an issue is occurring and make it even worse.

Students in foster homes are a prime example. According to Johnson, a foster child’s guardian may opt the child in, but before any corporal punishment takes place, the child’s case worker would also be consulted.

Johnson said in those cases, he would rather just not use corporal punishment. I hope that is the case.

In recent conversations about this topic, one of the most jarring and eye-opening points made to me was from a parent whose Cassville high school student said they are afraid of what children being abused at home may do at school if physical-based punishments are used there, too. Cassville’s policy, and most policies in our area that allow it, only use corporal punishment as a last resort, mostly in place of out-of-school suspension.

It feels like a short-term solution to a long-term problem, and the real question is this: are we teaching youth already struggling with discipline that violence is an acceptable solution?

I guess it’s OK, but only when all other avenues are exhausted.

Schools are tasked with preparing children for the future, and I can think of very, very few scenarios where violence is an acceptable route.

All that said, I’m not as disappointed in the district for implementing the policy as I am for how it was done.

Research for these topics is great, preferred even. The fact Cassville took out the time to send surveys and request the opinions of its staff, students and parents is commendable.

That said, some policies should not be decided by parent opinion. Educational institutions should base policies in educational research.

If you think otherwise, know that there are groups of parents in multiple local districts over the last two years who have maintained students are being allowed to “identify as cats” and “use a litter box in the back of the classroom.”

Are these parents answering the surveys?

Addressing discipline is something every school must deal with. As a parent, I’d like to see schools be a bit more innovative than going with “whatever the parents say.”

We owe it to our children to use the best practices possible. Is corporal punishment effective? Possibly. Is it the best practice? I do not think so.

Only a couple years ago, during the renovation of the Vintage Wing, two old paddles were found behind bookcases, riddled with signatures of those whom it brandished. At that time, paddles were called “relics of the past.”

I hope Cassville’s policy is so little used that those “relics” stay shelved.

Kyle Troutman has served as the editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014. In 2017, he was named William E. James/ Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers, and in 2022, he won a Golden Dozen Award from ISWINE. He may be reached at 417- 847-2610 or ktroutman@cherryroad.com.