RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina public schools continue phasing out student spankings, with corporal punishment last year happening half as often as the previous year and swats meted out in just four school districts.
A report to the State Board of Education on Thursday updates corporal punishment use in the state's 115 school districts.
The report says during the school year ending last May, 66 students were paddled a total of 73 times. Almost half those cases were reported by Robeson County, with the rest coming from schools in Graham, Macon and Wilson counties. Almost half the cases involved American Indian children, while white students made up most of the rest.
Paddling students as a form of discipline has fallen by more than 90 percent since the start of the decade.
