I was under the impression Corporal punishment was illegal, period.

Texas mom outraged her teen daughter was paddled 'bright red' by a male vice principal for cheating incident

The high school sophomore came home looking ‘burned and blistered,’ says mom. ‘Men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls.’

By Anthony Bartkewicz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, September 23, 2012, 3:53 PM

WFAA

Anna Jorgensen said her daughter came home looking ‘burned and blistered’ from the force of the punishment.

When high school sophomore Taylor Santos was suspected by school officials of allowing a classmate to copy her work she was presented with two choices — suspension or paddling. Santos, not wanting to miss school time, opted for the latter.

But her mom is “unglued” over who did the paddling, and how hard.

"I knew school policy was females swatted females, and males swatted males," Anna Jorgensen told WFAA-TV. "If Taylor wanted that, I said that would be fine."

But when her daughter came home Wednesday after the paddling, her bottom looked like it had been “burned and blistered, it was so bad,” Jorgensen said.

"It was bright red," Taylor added.

Jorgensen was even more outraged when she learned that a male vice principal at Springtown High School, northwest of Fort Worth, doled out the discipline.

She called the vice principal the next day. She said he told her he hadn’t hit Taylor any harder than he normally would, and that he was unaware of the Springtown Independent School District police that states, "Corporal punishment shall be administered only by an employee who is the same sex as the student."

Corporal punishment is legal in schools in 19 states, including Texas, though Jimmy Dunne, president of the group People Opposed to Paddling Students told ABC News, “A lot of people think it was abolished 20 years ago.”

WFAA

Taylor Santos willingly took a paddling instead of a suspension for a school cheating incident.

Springtown ISD Superintendent Mike Kelley said the vice principal may have violated the policy, but he’s also trying to abolish that very policy, according to WFAA.

He claims the gender makeup of faculty and students can make it difficult to guarantee that kids are paddled by an administrator of the same sex.

But Jorgensen said her daughter is proof that the policy needs to stay in place.

"I don't believe a man intentionally meant to do that to her,” she said. “But it still happens, because men are too big and strong to be hitting 96-pound girls."

States where corporal punishment is legal in schools:

Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Wyoming

(Information from The Center for Effective Discipline)