House fights over corporal punishment of Oklahoma disabled children, sends ban to governor

OKLAHOMA CITY — House lawmakers on Wednesday fought over whether educators should be able to physically discipline disabled students before ultimately voting to send a bill prohibiting the practice to the governor.

Senate Bill 364 prohibits school personnel from “hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping” or using any other physical force on a student with a federally recognized and protected disability. Existing state law only prohibits schools from administering corporal punishments on students with the “most significant cognitive disabilities.”

“It’s really sad, the broad links people will go to to try to twist and turn words to continue to allow people to slap, choke, pull hair, cause bruises, push, shove, and anything else that they can do to a kid with special needs,” said Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, the bill’s author.

He said only a small percentage of Oklahoma districts — around 60 that he knows of — still allow corporal punishment. But Moore quickly ticked off a list of disabled children who have been choked or paddled by school personnel without parental permission. Moore said he was not going to publicly name the districts.

Nothing in the measure prohibits parents from administering corporal punishment on their disabled children, but schools could not, he said.

“I don’t think a kid with Down syndrome should be spanked,” Moore said. “I don’t think a kid with epilepsy should be beaten. I don’t think a kid with autism should be choked.”

Moore said he’s a devout Christian, a deacon in his church, and administers corporal punishment on his own children. But he said it is appalling that people cite the Bible to justify choking a child with special needs.

“It makes me ashamed to be someone that might be categorized with that person,” he said

House lawmakers have previously garnered national attention for refusing to put such a ban into state law. Administering corporal punishment on disabled children has been banned by the State Department of Education since 2020. Federal records show hundreds of Oklahoma children with disabilities were physically disciplined during the 2020-21 school year.

Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, said the language of the bill passed Wednesday is nearly identical to the previous measure that failed to advance out of the same chamber about two years ago.

Olsen said the prior one didn’t advance because of concerns that the number of protected students was too broad and because it stripped away parental power and local control.

Those concerns remain, he said.

There are certainly children who should never have corporal punishment used on them, but Senate Bill 364’s prohibition is too broad because in addition to protecting the profoundly disabled, it also includes students who suffer from hearing, speech and visibility impairments and serious emotional disturbances, Olsen said.

“If you had a 10-year-old boy that was physically healthy, intellectually normal, and he couldn’t say his R’s correctly, under the provisions of this bill, he would be prohibited, even if the parents wanted it, he would be prohibited from having corporal punishment used on him,” he said. “No exceptions.”

He said the Bible references that the “rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.”

“I have observed over the years that when we get to thinking that we’re smarter than the Bible that doesn’t turn out very well,” he said.

Rep. Cynthia Roe, R-Lindsay, said it’s appalling that lawmakers are having to have a conversation about “inflicting suffering on a child that has no idea what is happening.”

She said multiple studies show that students with disabilities have corporal punishment applied at disproportionately higher rates than their non-disabled peers. Multiple child psychology organizations oppose “beating a kid in school,” and most experts recommend non-violent methods to address inappropriate behavior in school, Roe said.

Roe, who is also a child abuse examiner, said corporal punishment signals to a child that the way to settle conflict is by inflicting physical force and pain and that it’s OK to “just slug somebody in the face because you don’t agree with what they’re saying.”

She said lawmakers talk about protecting their children from predators, but are not protecting vulnerable children from punishments they can’t understand.

“They don’t realize that the behavior they’re exhibiting is not appropriate, and they’re not understanding that getting their butt beat is because of the behavior they just exhibited,” Roe said.

But Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, said lawmakers are stripping parents of the ability to permit the use of an effective discipline method that they know will “get my child’s attention.”

The bill also does nothing to change the fact that children who aren’t diagnosed with a disability can still be subjected to physical discipline in school, he said.

West said lawmakers should be looking at school corporal punishment usage in totality, not just one part.

The bill leaves the door open for a broad interpretation, and West said he fears that if a school district does allow corporal punishment, there’s a “very, very strong chance that a parent could sue, even if they had given permission.”

The bill, which awaits a decision from Gov. Kevin Stitt, passed 61-23.