Phil Roe on his vote against protecting school children
I went to the Hill because I often witnessed things that were simply inexplicable to me. How could Republicans vote against armor for our troops in Iraq? How could they vote to cut their pay while they were in the middle of a war? How could they vote against Senator Franken’s anti-rape amendment?
This is another of those issues.
THE PREVENTING HARMFUL RESTRAINT AND SECLUSION IN SCHOOLS ACT…. H.R. 4247, the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act, seemed like the kind of legislation that would enjoy broad support.
It focuses on school safety, and seeks to protect children from “physical or mental abuse,” and would ensure that “physical restraint and seclusion” of children would be limited to instances in which “a student’s behavior poses an imminent danger of physical injury” to the student or others. The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), co-chair of the House Republican Conference, which should have bolstered the bill’s bipartisan appeal.
You’d expect something like this to breeze through the House, but you’d be wrong. In the age of the Tea Party, even the most uncontroversial of legislative proposals are attacked by many Republicans in order to shore up their anti-statist bona fides. The majority of the Republican caucus voted against H.R. 4247 on the premise that issues of school safety is best left alone for the states to decide.
Here’s Roe on his vote against the bill:
[...] see here for more context [...]
Bill Cassidy on his vote against protecting school children at StarkReports.com
11 Mar 10 at 5:04 pm
And oddly enough Tennessee allows corporal punishment of children too. I’m with you – this one leaves me scratching my head. The states don’t want to do much or enforce anything…
ga
12 Mar 10 at 11:41 am
This law is pure pandering and frankly the stream of sanctimonious speeches was sickening. This is an issue of enforcement not of lack of statutes and this legislation represents just more Federal encroachment. Of course it seems innocuous, but it also seems unnecessary. How about cutting some farm subsidies and redeploying the dollars to help fund understaffed child & family services offices… now THAT would be courageous. This issue, debate, and legislation represents the worst of Congress, in my opinion.
Trace Urdan
12 Mar 10 at 12:37 pm
Our 3 children attend schools in an UNRESPONSIVE Paddling School District in Tennessee and we are unable to protect them from witnessing/overhearing students being threatened/hit with wooden paddles just outside class for minor infractions, then the battered student is further humiliated when they immediately face classmates when they return to their seat. Tennessee State Law does NOT require Parental Consent of Notification for Children to be Physically punished in school!
We made a written/verbal presentation to our school board during April 2008 during “National Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month” to Demand they Prohibit Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children in our Schools and we received no response, they IGNORED US!
U.S. Congress just passed the “Safe Students Act” and it is expected to pass the Senate, BUT it doesn’t keep kids safe as paddling is still allowed in schools in 20 states, already ILLEGAL IN SCHOOLS IN 30 STATES! Allowing students to be paddled/corporally punished in schools is in direct conflict with the children’s bureau of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare that states in its guidelines for juvenile lockups: “Corporal punishment should not be tolerated in any form.”
This bill sets minimum federal standards against the use of seclusion and restraints in public and private schools, a reaction to a U.S. government investigation that last year found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death of children who were subjected to these tactics over the previous two decades.
Republican opponents argued that states’ rights were being trampled, and 153 legislators voted against it.
But the bill does not outlaw corporal punishment, already ILLEGAL in SCHOOLS IN 30 STATES! States still have the right to make the decision.
People with SPANKING FETISHES work in occupations that give them access to children like hospitals, schools, boy scouts, etc. and over 2,500 teachers were punished in a 5 year period since 2000 for inappropriate sexual relations with our nation’s school children, and women teachers are sexually preying on children at an increasingly alarming rate, which is why PHYSICAL/CORPORAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS MUST BE ABOLISHED IMMEDIATELY!
Shocking news headlines of Children being injured by school employees hitting them with wooden paddles are all too common in the 20 states that have not outlawed physical/corporal punishment (paddling) in schools. Paddling injuries put school districts at risk for lawsuits, as evidenced recently in Leflore County, Miss., sued twice in one month for $500,000 each by families of elementary school children injured by paddling at school. Mississippi is second in the nation, following Texas as first, for using corporal punishment as a “Discipline Management Technique” in schools and reported nearly 60,000 School “Spankings” last year. In fact, in February 2010, an elementary school principal was ARRESTED in La Vega, Texas for injuring a child by administering corporal punishment.
Maintaining order through fear and violence is never justified and creates a learning environment filled with FEAR, INTIMIDATION, ANXIETY, DREAD and HUMILIATION! A Federal Lawsuit has been filed to ban school paddling in Miss. and also seeks a Declaration that School Corporal Punishment is UNCONSTITUTIONAL! In denying the restraining order, Judge Pepper said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (CP is ILLEGAL in SCHOOLS IN 30 STATES, MORE THAN HALF OUR NATION!) cited in the lawsuit, did not apply to corporal punishment. Judge Pepper also ruled that the plaintiff failed to show that he was in imminent danger of another paddling, the ruling is being appealed to a Federal Court in Louisiana.
A Title IX Complaint was filed February 6, 2010 with
U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil
Rights Against 20 School Paddling States by Coalition Against School Paddling
Proposed S.C. Senate Bill S. 1042 School IMMUNITY for Physical/Corporal Punishment of Children Legislation by Sen. Jake Knotts
NOTE: Giving teachers and principals immunity from all civil and criminal liability arising from corporal punishment effectively and unconstitutionally denies students and parents the legal remedies that were essential to the Supreme Court’s decision
12/09 South Carolina Police Say Kindergarten Teacher Hit Students. Sarah McCutchen turned herself in to police on 16 charges of unlawful conduct with a child. Her bond was set at $30,000.
Students’ Civil Rights to Get Scrutiny – The Obama administration plans to crack down on civil-rights infractions in school districts and university systems, including alleged disparities in the disciplining of white and black students.
The campaign will essentially put an enforcement stick behind the carrot of the administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which holds out the promise of extra federal funding if states revamp their education policies. While Race to the Top will reward school reforms, the civil-rights push will emphasize the potential to punish offending schools.
States found to be violating laws designed to assure equal treatment in education could, in extreme cases, face litigation or a withholding of federal school funding, U.S. education officials said.
HR 911, the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act, sponsored by Representative George Miller of California, passed the House on February 23 and has been handed over to the Senate Health Education Labor and Pension commission for hearings. A hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
Child Abusers who happen to be employed by schools or churches and VIOLATE the Public’s TRUST must not be “Above the Law” when they commit crimes against children/humanity and must be subject to the same laws as any parent, policeman or judge, including registering as sex offenders when convicted. Until Congress forces states to stop the practice of administering physical/corporal punishment to children in schools, children will still be subjected to suffering physical, psychological and emotional injuries from beatings in many schools in this country!
Julie Worley
12 Mar 10 at 12:48 pm
I have found there is only one way to deal with adults who hit children. You force them to face an angry parent determined to hit back.
quite a few of us are mean motherf*ckers when it comes to our kids. I’ll take a baseball bat to anyone who touches MY kid.
brendancalling
15 Mar 10 at 3:29 pm
akopsa of “lettuce spray” has composed and is circulating a petition online that she intends to take before the senate HELP committee next month to get HR911 on the floor for vote:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/demand-senate-take-up-hr-911-put-an-end-to-institutionalized-child-abuse
she speaks strongly in favor of HR911:
http://akopsa.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/hr-911-moving-in-the-right-direction-to-end-christian-school-abuse/
While OTHERS do not:
“we urge all of our friends to help us defeat this wicked bill called HR911.”
http://www.hopeofisrael.net/component/content/article/1-latest/588-girls-a-boys-home-ministries-in-jeopardy-of-closure.html
Jack Patterson, and Olen (Olin) King, both directors of unlicensed, unregulated, church-supported children’s homes merely run to other states, not unlike the child abusing Catholic priests, open up new facilities, and continue right on with what they were doing:
http://akopsa.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/history-of-violence-christian-boarding-schools-and-the-trial-of-jack-patterson/
(Jack Patterson is currently looking for new property elsewhere in the southeast, since the state of AL ran him off)
“Our legal issues are over Praise the Lord! Read our legal page for update. Please pray
about Bill 911. If it passes in the House of Representatives, Bill 911 will destroy the opportunity
to help the 13 to 17 young people.”
http://www.jackpatterson1.com/latest-news
Please sign the HR911 petition!
Teresa
31 Mar 10 at 5:39 pm