The Core Knowledge Blog

Number of students hit, spanked, or subject to corporal punishment in the 2006-2007 school year, according to U.S. Education Department figures: 223,190

Number in 2000-2001: 342,038

Number of states that report more than 1,000 uses of corporal punishment per year: 13

Rank of Texas, Mississippi and Alabama among states most likely to use corporal punishment: 1, 2 and 3.

Ratio of boys paddled to girls:  4 to 1

Chance that a girl subject to corporal punishment is black: 2 out of 3

Percentage of students nationwide who are black: 17.

Percentage of corporal punishments nationwide meted out on black students:  35.6

Percentage of U.S. students classified as disabled: 10.7

Percentage of corporal punishments meted out on disabled students:  17.4

Percentage of Northeast, Upper Midwest and Pacific states that have banned corporal punishment: 100

Percentage of Southern states that have banned it: 0

Percentage of people in Twiggs County, Georgia who support the practice, according to a member of the community’s school board:  95

Average number of daily referrals for paddling reported by a former assistant principal in charge of discipline at a middle school in Meridian, Mississippi:  19-23 students

Single day record in the same school:  37 students.

Number of states and countries where corporal punishment is banned: 29, 106 countries, respectively

Sources: USA Today, Reuters, Human Rights Watch

(With apologies to the Harper’s Index)