Paddling Sends Wrong Message

Assemblyman Mickey Conroy’s idea that corporal punishment should be rekindled is both shocking and disturbing. Has our society been so totally consumed with violence that our solutions to everything is to immediately pick up a weapon and physically instill morals and values?

Reinstating paddling would terminate school as a safe place where students can be free from fear. How can we expect young people to trust and revere teachers if, at the same time, they must worry about the threat of being paddled for provoking the anger and contempt of these same people?

There are other solutions to solving behavioral problems without resorting to violence. There is no need for schools to return to the primitive, ineffective methods of disciplining by force.

For years adults have been trying to show young people that violence and weapons do not solve any conflict. The success of that message will be immediately erased if paddling is made legal. Paddling is severely detrimental and hitting a child is not a legal right that anyone should have.

ABIGAIL AKZIN

Irvine