In Mississippi, Educators Will Be Teaching About - and Violating - Civil Rights

Five years ago, Mississippi’s Governor Haley Barbour signed into law a requirement that civil rights be taught in every grade in Mississippi’s public schools. That law will go into effect this fall.

The fact that the Magnolia State, with a dark civil rights history, is the first state to enact such a requirement is impressive and commendable. The press attention to this law is probably welcome to Barbour, the presidential hopeful who was panned last month for his insensitive remarks about white citizens councils.

All children should be taught and encouraged to know and defend their own civil rights. My organization, the National Youth Rights Association, believes this is a great initiative that should be replicated in every single state.

But Mississippi should go a step further and stop the unforgivable practice of regularly beating public school children.

Mississippi is one of 20 states where corporal punishment is legal. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 220,000 students were beaten in U.S. Public Schools during the 2005-2006 school year. 35,000 of these incidents occurred in Mississippi. This means that Mississippi, which represents .01% of the U.S. Population performs 7.5% of the legal child beatings. That is 750 times their portion.

The medical community has known that hitting children is often a direct cause of juvenile anti-social behavior ever since a landmark study performed in 1940. According to Laurie A. Couture, parenting coach and board member of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education, “There have been over 60 years of research showing that hitting children is harmful to them psychologically and leads to depression or aggression.”

That’s why the American Medical Association has been saying, since 1985, that “infliction of pain or discomfort, however minor, is not a desirable method of communicating with children.”

Unfortunately, corporal punishment, despite mountains of evidence that it’s a harmful and ineffective practice, is a widely supported institution in Mississippi even in districts where the practice has been banned. The Jackson School District is one of the few districts that has banned corporal punishment in Mississippi.

However, when it was discovered this fall that a Jackson High School Basketball coach was whipping his players with a weightlifter’s belt the administration’s response was lackluster. The coach was suspended with pay, defended by the school’s administration who despite video evidence have reinstated the coach, denied any wrongdoing and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Nationally, progress is being made on the front of banning corporal punishment. Change.org member Sarah Robin has created a petition to support legislation by U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-NY, to ban corporal punishment in all schools. You can support McCarthy's work by sending a letter to your elected officials telling them to support this legislation.

But clearly, it’s not enough to ban the practice. Civil rights education is desperately needed. Mississippi’s unfortunate history of racial segregation, lynchings and the KKK should be taught in schools.

It is a familiar axiom that those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. Any effort to teach civil rights to the students of Mississippi should also include a discussion of the grave civil rights offenses currently being endured by those very students.

Photo credit: SmilingStrong via Flickr