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Group protests Memphis Academy of Health Sciences policy

This charter school calls
public spanking "part of their strategy." They
do it in public assemblies once a week.

By Jane Roberts

Memphis Academy of Health Sciences is under
fire from a national group for spanking
students and doing it in public.

The Hitting Stops Here!, a California-based
nonprofit, picketed the school at 3925 Chelsea
Extended the last two weeks in what has
amounted to a one-woman crusade.

Talking back to teachers or others in authority
is grounds for punishment. So is fighting,
displaying gang-like behavior or wearing
sagging pants.

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."

Last Tuesday, Paula Flowe, director of the
nonprofit, planned to block the entrance to the
school at 7 a.m. The protest and another event
scheduled for Wednesday were called off when TV
cameras did not show up, she said.

Males are paddled with a wooden paddle; girls
are given lashes to the fingers with a leather
strap. They are also paddled by a female
assistant.

Flowe wants parents to know "there are other
ways to treat children without beating the tar
out of them."

Much of the discipline is meted out in public
assemblies held once a week for each grade.
Each grade has 80-90 students.

MAHS is the only charter school in Memphis that
uses corporal punishment, according to the
Tennessee Charter School Association. Memphis
City Schools banned spanking and other forms of
corporal punishment in 2005.

While board member Dr. Scott Morris does not
condone corporal punishment, "you would have to
prove to me in a way that would shock me that
Mr. Weathers would allow abuse of children to
go on in this school."

Flowe says the punishment and the way it is
administered is a "slave tactic," designed to
intimidate black people by a show of force.

The student body is African-American.

"I am 100 percent in support of everything that
goes on here," said Tomeka Granger, whose
daughter was kicked off the school's basketball
team by the coach for not making good enough
grades.

"This kind of discipline actually makes our
jobs easier," said Renee Williams, another
mother who said her son's grades have
"skyrocketed" since he joined the school.

"If I don't say something then I'm letting
others downgrade my school," she said. "I love
it, and I like the environment."

Weathers said the charges are exaggerated and
parents are humiliated by what the group is
saying about them.

"Our parents are very much aware of our
disciplinary policies and procedures," he said.
"It's one of the first things we tell them. If
they don't like the environment, they have a
right to leave the school."

Antonius Hart withdrew his son several weeks
ago when he found out the boy had been paddled
nearly every week since school started, he
said.

"He was paddled and suspended, which amounts to
double jeopardy," he said. "And then the
principal sent a text message to my son telling
him he needed to make arrangements to withdraw.
Why is he sending a message like that to my
son? Why didn't he call me?"

— Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
2009-04-13
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/13/group-protests-mahs-policy/?printer=1/

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