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Abstract: 

A new study, entitled “Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students With Disabilities in U.S. Public Schools,” was released August 10, 2009. This 70-page study reports that, in states that allow corporal punishment in schools, students with disabilities were far more likely than other students to be physically punished or disciplined in school. The report documents not only instances in which students were punished for disability-related behaviors (e.g., involuntary tics caused by Tourette syndrome, children with autism screaming and kicking), but also instances in which the students’ conditions deteriorated after the punishment (e.g., initiation or intensification of violent behavior in students with autism). There is a sidebar summarizing the provisions of the convention’s report.

Keywords: corporal punishment of students with disabilities; Tourette syndrome; autism

Affiliations:  1: Editor, Victimization of the Elderly and Disabled.