According to Fox News, fifteen-year-old Texas teenager Taylor Santos was spanked by her male vice principal for allegedly getting caught letting another classmate copy her work. Vice Principal Kirt Shaw of Springtown, Texas, disciplined the girl with a wooden paddle, hard enough to bruise and blister the 90-pound girl’s buttocks. 

Even though Santos herself offered taking a paddling instead of initially receiving a two day suspension, it was not expected to be by a male and to be so severe.

The mother of the teenage girl, Anna Jorgensen, said in an interview with the Huffington Post that the school district is covering their own by considering a policy change concerning corporal punishment after the male vice principal paddled her daughter so hard it left a nasty mark. “I really don’t think he had to hit her that hard,” she stated.

School corporal punishment is legal in 22 states in the U.S. and was, in fact, legal in Michigan until 1989.  There are faculty members at our school today that were around at Monroe High before this law was banned, including teacher and coach Robert Wood..

“I don’t agree with applying physical punishment on kids.  It just doesn’t go with my views,” Wood said.

If corporal punishment was still legal in Michigan, Wood said this generation would not stand for it. “Obviously, we’re not as passive-aggressive as past generations and don’t have the same respect for our elders as they did in the past,” he said.  

Many students have agreed with Wood, saying that they think students would be more aggressive against this today.

“I think it would cause kids to retaliate,” said senior Ryan Labudie.

 “I wouldn’t let it happen because they’re not our parents,” said senior Marlin Daniels.