While data indicates that the use of corporal punishment by schools has declined significantly in recent years, the practice is still in use for tens of thousands of public school students in the United States. Many activists and parent groups are demanding that the practice be outlawed in schools.
Nineteen U.S. states, mainly in the South, Southwest, and Midwest, still legally allow for corporal punishment, and teachers and school officials have wide discretion in how and when to apply such discipline. The basis for such legality is a 1977 Supreme Court case, Ingraham v. Wright, which found that spanking in schools was not a violation of students' rights. Across the United States, 31 states and the District of Columbia have banned the practice of "paddling" and other corporal punishment in schools; even in these states where it is banned, however, some reports of physical discipline in schools still persist.
The most recent report from the U.S. Department of Education estimates that nearly 167,000 students received physical punishment in school during the 2011 to 2012 year. Mississippi and Texas accounted for 35 percent of the reported cases of corporal punishment, and with the addition of Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, the data suggests that over 70 percent of all children disciplined with physical force reside in just five states. In addition, both anecdotal and empirical evidence shows that a disproportionate number of the students receiving corporal punishment are black.