USA American Confederate Redneck Shitebag Neanderthals
(still happening in The Redneck States of America in 2010):
http://nospank.net/shelly3.htm
Pg. 25-27
Punitiveness in American Education:
Why We Can't Stop
I cannot begin to elaborate on the personal trauma and anguish my
husband and I have felt as parents not being able to protect our
daughter." So began the testimony of Marlene Gaspersohn before the
cameras, press, audience, and members of the Subcommittee on Juvenile
Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate. Chaired
by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), the subcommittee met to
hear testimony about corporal punishment. It was October 17, 1984, and
Marlene, despite her nervousness, spoke clearly and emphatically.
In recent times, we have all become aware that there are child abusers
in every walk of life. However, not only has their existence in the
field of education not been acknowledged, but a haven for such people
is provided by law in most states.
I can speak from my own experience only of North Carolina; but I have
read about and been in contact with other parents from North Carolina
and other states who have had similar exasperating tales of unjust and
brutal treatment of their children at the hands of their "educators."
There is a professional unwillingness on the part of educators to
admit that such incidents occur. I know this to be true from our own
experience. The best way to deny they happen is not to acknowledge the
incident, play down its significance when the news media does hear of
it, cover up with lies and insults and try to turn public opinion
against the child victim and his or her family by branding them as
"trouble makers."
1. Shelly was corporally punished for her first offense ever in 13
years of public school, so it was the primary means of discipline
(even though the school discipline guide indicated that corporal
punishment should not be the first punishment tried).
2. In the student handbook there is no reference to what specific
offenses can result in corporal punishment.
3. No notices are posted anywhere in the school appraising students of
what infractions may result in corporal punishment.
4. No adult witness was present in the room. (School policy required
that a witness be present during the paddling. The witness who
testified during the trial said most of the time he was standing
outside the door talking to a student, yet no one saw him).
5. Since no witness was present, he was not informed in the presence
of Shelly the reasons for the corporal punishment.
6. The written report that must be filed with the principal was
neither signed nor dated the morning after her beating.
7. The principal would not provide us personally or our attorney with
a copy of the report until a few days before the trial, which was two
years later, even though it had been requested in writing.
8. An alternative discipline to corporal punishment of raking leaves
would have been offered to Shelly had she been a boy. Therefore, we
charge that there was sex discrimination as well.
Painfully Marlene recalled the suffering she felt for her daughter:
The day after her corporal punishment, I took Shelly to Dr. John
Smith, Medical Examiner of nearby Sampson County. Not only was Shelly
badly bruised, the beating had caused her menstrual flow to turn into
hemorrhaging.
After examining her, Dr. Smith called Harnett County Social Services
and reported Glenn Varney as a child abuser. He was informed that
there is no agency in North Carolina that has the authority to
investigate the charge of child abuse against a public schoolteacher.
It is classified as a "school matter" and must be dealt with by the
local Board of Education.
The Board of Education had already met for their once a month December
meeting, so we could not bring a grievance before the board until
January, we were told. In January there was not enough time to prepare
since they said we must make the request in writing two weeks prior to
the meeting.
By February we were ready to present our grievance to the board, but
were told that they couldn't hear us that month because of a reception
after the meeting for a retiring teacher which meant that they would
have no executive session after the regular board meeting.
Marlene's story was beginning to sound like an account of
stonewalling: if you can keep the parents at bay long enough, they
will eventually give up. It works most of the time when parents have
limited resources and fear retribution from the school or people in
the community. She continued:
So it was March 1982 before our attorney, Renny Deese, was allowed to
make our presentation. . . Up to that time no reference had been made
of the other three girls [who were paddled at the same time as
Shelly] . . . and I realized it would be all covered up if I did not
inform the local press. That is how the notoriety began.
After the school board heard the complaints, they said nothing until
just before graduation, and then they claimed that Varney had done
nothing wrong. Marlene reasoned that the board decided that with
graduation behind her, Shelly and her family would drop the issue.
Instead they had created a family of angry people who would not give
up. A cruel act by a local school administrator and a stonewalling
school board propelled a compassionate, loving parent all the way to a
congressional hearing. . .