Recently in Education Laws Category

Corporal punishment in school is illegal in California, but a spanking controversy has hit a publicly funded charter middle school in Memphis, prompting opposition from the California-based activist group "Hitting Stops Here!", according to this story from the Commercial Appeal newspaper.  Males get a wooden paddle, while girls are given "lashes to the fingers with a leather strap," according to the article. In an unusual twist, much of the discipline is meted out at student assemblies. An excerpt:

Spanking has been part of MAHS's strategy since the school opened in 2003, said principal Curtis Weathers. Parents must sign a contract before their children are admitted."This is nothing that we are ashamed of," Weathers said. "It's very effective for us as a strategy for avoiding certain conducts."

[The director of  "Hitting Stops Here!" said that she] wants parents to know "there are other ways to treat children without beating the tar out of them."

This is a little old, but the story didn't get as much play as I expected in the news, so I thought I would post it here in case you hadn't heard about it. In February, a federal appeals court ruled unconstitutional a California law that would have banned the sale or rental of violent video games to minors, as reported in this USA Today article. Judges said the law violated minors' rights under the U.S. Constitution's First and 14th amendments. I'm eager to hear your thoughts: Did the intended ban go too far? Is the voluntary rating system that game companies are now using sufficient?