A debate from the Barbados Advocate:

AS a strong advocate for the retention of corporal punishment in schools, this writer is following with keen interest the ongoing discussion in the media concerning the subject. Readers may recall that nine years ago this writer provided statistics of the thousands of suspensions and expulsions in Britain following the abolition of corporal punishment in schools in 1986… Since what happens in the North Atlantic, particularly Britain, has a way of appearing later in Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean, this writer gave a timely warning to Barbados not to follow the example of the Mother Country.

It is unfortunate that a subject which should generate both lively and serious dialogue now seems to be slithering in to personal and subjective insinuations by some of those persons who oppose corporal punishment. It also evident that another group is frozen in time to the 40’s and 50’s when corporal punishment was the panacea for all short comings. But Barbados has long moved past that era!

In the Barbados Advocate of April 26 2009, Rev. William Cuke writes: “What disturbs me are the terms used to describe corporal punishment by those who argue against it. For example, terms such as ‘Organised Brutality’ and such like clearly reveal that those who are against it view Corporal Punishment differently to those who are in favour of it… The one administering punishment should do so in love and without any anger or resentment”

This writer is in total agreement with the goodly pastor…  Is flogging a young girl to prevent her from having an unwanted pregnancy a ‘systematic crime and violence’?

…This writer again admonishes Barbados not to bow to the pressures of the North Atlantic and concludes with another quotation from Peter Dottin: “Using corporal punishment is simply a tool…I might add, that has been used quite successfully in Barbados for several years and has produced some most excellent gentlemen such as Mr. Griffith despite his talk about the memories the floggings he or she received and its effects on him.”

More news yesterday from The Times in South Africa regarding the controversial Cefups Academy, after a Lizelle Macedo, a 19-year-old girl, “was allegedly kicked and flogged by the owner of a private school in Mpumalanga”. She has filed a complaint of assault against the owner, Simon Mkhatshwa, who she claims “hit her with a sjambok for not disclosing a planned boycott by the student committee.”

This follows a Department of Education investigation into the school after the Sunday Times reported in April that the owner flogged three girls, forced them to remove their panties and paraded them in front of the school assembly.

The Mpumalanga Education Department found several more cases of abuse and recommended that the Human Rights Commission deal with the matter. The girls and a further five pupils were removed from the school after the Telkom Foundation, which sponsored them to the tune of R266000, heard about the beatings.

The investigation into corporal punishment at the school, where pupils pay R27700 for tuition and boarding fees, found that the allegations in the Sunday Times story were true and cited shocking allegations from pupils which, among others, included:

- Sports teams were punished for failing to win matches…
- Terrified pupils wear several layers of clothing to ease the pain of being sjambokked.

Mkhatshwa denied all the allegations, saying corporal punishment was not administered at the school. Mpumalanga’s education department has asked its legal team for advice on whether the school should be deregistered.

That previous story in April had reported as follows:

An Mpumalanga school founder who believes in old-fashioned punishment allegedly flogged a 15-year-old pupil and then forced her to take off her panties and parade them in front of the school assembly — for penning a saucy message.

The girl, whose name cannot be revealed because she is a minor, was allegedly lashed 32 times with a sjambok, while her two roommates received 15 and eight lashes respectively. Now Simon Mkhatshwa, 52, the founder of Cefups Academy in Nelspruit, is about to be probed by the Mpumalanga Department of Education after Childline laid a complaint.

About 500 pupils attend the academy, some from as far afield as Mozambique and Swaziland. Mkhatshwa has denied the charges. But the grade 10 pupil — who was removed from the school after the brutal punishment — told how she had been sjambokked after a notebook containing the note “POLO > panties off, legs open” was discovered in her hostel room during a raid by Mkhatshwa.

The girl and two other 16-year-old pupils who share her room were sjambokked outside their hostel that evening. At assembly the next morning, they were ordered by Mkhatshwa to take off their panties and parade in front of fellow pupils…

Mkhatshwa is no stranger to the headlines. He paid a R1000 fine in 1999 after publicly sjambokking Lindie Maphanga, the school’s English teacher, and came under scrutiny again in 2001 when angry pupils marched to the provincial legislature to protest against corporal punishment at the school.

A discussion board in Waco, Texas focuses on data published in August 2008, which shows that “223,190 students received corporal punishment during the 2006-2007 school year, and 49,197 of them were in Texas”. Robina of Fort Worth caught up with the thread on 5 February 2009 and posted her experiences:

Where I went to high school (class 2004) in a large suburban district, students were given the choice between detention and a paddling for most minir things like tardies. Most took the paddling and it worked well. I think as long as it is a choice and not manditory, there is no real problem.

I was paddled twice, once in 10th grade and once in 12th, and I think this kept me out of more trouble. I think just hearing a student getting paddled in the hall is a big deterrent to other students.

I remember one girls’ PE coach who was so feared that she only had to use the paddle once a week or so to keep everyone in line. We would listen and think: “Thank God its her and not me getting it!”2

From a free spanking gallery on Girls Boarding School