Georgia Paddling

I have mutual friends on facebook with a women who shared a video of her son being paddled in school, which our mutual friend shared. Since then, it has blown up and been brought to the attention of several news stations including Fox5.

Here is the story: Shana Perez has a 5 year old son who attends a Georgia elementary school. In Georgia, corporal punishment is legal (aka paddling). However, this is only with parental consent. Shana had declined consenting in the beginning of the year.

Thomas, her son ended up misbehaving in school and apparently attempted to hit another child and missed, then spit on someone. The school gave him the option of being paddled or suspended. Shana had been arrested for truancy shortly before this incident for her son missing 18 days of school (not all at once) for doctors appointments in which he was thought to have cancer but she did not provide medical documents to the school. She was released on parole and was scared she would get arrested again if she allowed him to be suspended, so she felt as if she was forced into him being paddled.

The video was completely heartbreaking to me. The teachers are attempting to grab the boy to spank him with the paddle and Thomas is scared and trying to get away. The teacher even says, "Only once" and the other says, "Unless you wiggle around." It is just disheartening to me. Shana pretends to text and stands there completely ignoring her son. In the second video, the teachers even have the boy on the ground while he is crying, "Help me mama" and shoo Shana out of the room, who ends up leaving. She tells her son, "She can't help" and "Its not her place".

How do you feel about this? Do you believe in corporal punishment at school? Do you believe the mom was in the wrong for not standing her ground? Or do you understand the position she was in?