GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi Delta school district is banning corporal punishment after a scandal over a teacher who dragged a student by the hair.
The Greenville school board voted Tuesday to immediately forbid corporal punishment.
The Delta Democrat-Times reports the change came even though a survey showed three quarters of parents and employees favored the continued use of spanking or paddling.
Superintendent Janice Page-Johnson originally asked the board to change the policy to only allow administrators to paddle students.
The school board fired Superintendent Leeson Taylor in 2016 after a video emerged of a teacher dragging a special education student by the hair across the gym floor of Greenville High School.
Federal data show 5 percent of Mississippi students were paddled in 2013-14, the highest percentage of any state allowing corporal punishment.
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Information from: Delta Democrat-Times, http://www.ddtonline.com
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