Should I take the paddling?
Mary Anne asked for advice in May 2009 about a “Serious situation at school”:
I’m 17 and a senior at a Christian high school in Georgia. Yesterday morning my car battery died when I was leaving for school. I ended up being two hours late because I had to wait for AAA to switch it out. I missed my first period math exam which now counts as zero. My test average just went from a 90 to 60, and I am an honors student.
Missed exams can only be made up if someone is out to a medical emergency with documentation. My teacher gave me a choice of taking the zero with an additional in school suspension next week or taking five swats with a paddle and an opportunity to retake the exam.
I am almost physically sick over this. I have never ever been in trouble before and never paddled. I haven’t told my parents because I am afraid that if I can’t go ahead with it and I have to take a zero it’s going to hurt my final GPA a lot. On the other hand I talked to someone who had been paddled by the same teacher and told me what happened to him.
He said that he had to meet with my math teacher in a conference room and that he was given a choice between taking his swats fully bent over the table with a 30 inch paddle and if he stood up that swat wouldn’t count. Or if he didn’t feel he would be able to stay in place he could have the teacher sit with one leg leaning on the table and have to bend over the teachers leg so that the teacher could hold him down. The upside is that my teacher used a smaller paddle with the second option probably because he can’t swing the big one so close. I am not exaggerating this.
I am sick over taking a zero and killing my GPA, but I am just as sick at the thought of being paddled. I have never been in trouble before, and I hate this teacher. He gave me the weekend to decide.
