A southwestern Missouri school district says it will allow students to be spanked if parents give their permission. Classes resumed Tuesday in the Cassville School District for the first time
The policy says corporal punishment will be used only when other forms of discipline have failed and then only with the superintendent s permission. The district had dropped the practice in 2001.
Corporal punishment had been in a slow decline before the pandemic, but remains legal in 19 states, mostly in the South. The practice makes children more aggressive and disruptive, researchers say.