The North Texas School Districts That Still Allow Corporal Punishment, Mapped

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...

By Emily Mathis

September 22, 2014

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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.

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

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