A spanking paddle is an implement used to strike a person on the buttocks. The act of striking a person with a paddle is known as "paddling". A paddling may be for punishment (normally of a student at school), or as an initiation or hazing

Hazing

Hazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....

 ritual, or for erotic purposes

Erotic spanking

Erotic spanking is the act of spanking another person for the sexual arousal or gratification of either or both parties...

.

A paddle has two parts: a handle and a blade. Most paddles are designed to be held with one hand, but a larger paddle may be designed to be held with two hands. The blade is typically 3 to 4 inches (101.6 mm) wide, 1/2 inch thick, and 1 to 3 foot (0.9144 m) in length.

In the great majority of cases, the paddle is aimed at the recipient's buttocks; rarely, the back of the thighs might also be targeted.

Spanking paddles are made of wood, or occasionally plastic. Paddles used for school punishments may be roughly hewn from commonly available wood. The paddles used for fraternity and sorority initiation ceremonies are often professionally made and engraved with organizational symbols and slogans.

History of the paddle

The paddle may have been originally invented for the punishment of slaves as a way of causing intense pain without doing any permanent damage to the recipient. It is not only in former slave states that the paddle has been used in schools. It is not known why or exactly when it became the normal implement for corporal punishment in US schools.

Scope of use

Paddling is mainly used in many parts of the United States as a means to discipline misbehaving school students. Paddling is also used in some homes to punish children. The results of a national household survey indicate that paddling is a discipline technique that 10% of parents are "very likely to use". The percentage of parents who say that they are very likely to paddle increases to 12% when involving teenagers.

Paddling as punishment in U.S. schools

The paddle is the almost invariable implement in US schools that still allow corporal punishment for student misconduct. Some paddles have traditionally had holes bored in them for aerodynamic effect, but many schools nowadays prohibit the use of such paddles.

Paddling typically causes a slight reddening of the skin but in some cases can cause bruise

Bruise

A bruise, also called a contusion, is a type of relatively minor hematoma of tissue in which capillaries and sometimes venules are damaged by trauma, allowing blood to seep into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Bruises can involve capillaries at the level of skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle,...

s that are "visible for approximately two weeks". Whether or not particular bruises constitute evidence of "serious injury" or "abuse" or "child maltreatment" depends on individual circumstances and can ultimately be settled only by a court of law.

There have been cases in the past when paddling was administered incorrectly or excessively. Partly in order to avoid this danger, in the majority of U.S. schools, paddling is more strictly regulated than in the past, many schools publishing detailed rules in their student handbooks. It is usually a requirement that a professional witness be present. Nowadays there is often a maximum of three swats (or "licks" or "pops"). In the past, paddlings of up to 30 licks were not unknown, especially in rural schools. Practice has gradually moved from paddlings in the classroom or hallway to paddlings administered out of the sight of other students, typically in the principal's office. "Hallway" paddlings could typically be seen by other students, administrators or even outsiders visiting the school.

In 1981, a 17-year-old student claimed bleeding wounds as a result of a school paddling. It was alleged that the assistant principal who had administered the punishment had held and swung the paddle with two hands. In order to prevent such claims, nowadays a school district might require the handle of a spanking paddle to be "just large enough for a normal one-hand grip". Or a rule might provide that the handle shall not be more than 4 inches (101.6 mm) long (just large enough to be held with one hand).

In 1982, a nine-year-old student was hit with a wooden paddle that was cracked. This causing a bleeding wound that became a permanent scar. To avoid this, nowadays some school districts have adopted rules which prohibit using paddles that have cracks in them. For example, the policies of Bloomfield School District provide that, "Corporal punishment will be administered by spanking the buttocks of a student with a flat-surfaced paddle which is smoothly sanded and has no cracks or holes and that will cause no more than temporary pain and not inflict permanent damage to the body."

A paddling is typically administered with two or more school employees present. The student may be ordered to bend over a chair or desk and, in that position, receive the prescribed number of strokes of the paddle. Paddling usually occurs in an office but may sometimes occur in a hallway. The punishment is delivered across the seat of the student's trousers or skirt.

In order to avoid allegations of sexual abuse, many school districts require that a female teacher be present during the paddling of a female student. A school might also recommend "that female staff members administer corporal punishment to female students (middle and high school)". Or a school board might prescribe that a "female principal(s) or designee shall spank or paddle female students" and that a "male principal(s) or designee shall spank or paddle male students."

As of April 2011, 19 states allow corporal punishment in public schools. See School corporal punishment#United States for further information.

Social discipline

• Some university or college traditions enforce(d) rules by paddling offenders. In the University of Missouri until World War II, any freshman found on the 'quad', the most prestigious square on campus, had to offer his 'insolent' posterior for punishment along a paddle line formed by swatting seniors.
• Fraternities and sororities
  Fraternities and sororities
  Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
  
   are commonly associated with paddling of members, especially new members or pledges, as part of their hazing
  Hazing
  Hazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....
  
   rituals. Due to modern anti-hazing laws and regulations, this has declined. This entire subculture is peculiar to North America.

Other play and traditions

The paddle is also a favorite implement for non-disciplinary "fun" spankings, as also for paddle game

Paddle game

Paddle game may refer to:*Paddle * Paddle , a type of joystick...

s (such as trading blows

Trading blows

Trading Blows, or Trading licks, or - blows, - shots, etc., is an endurance test in which the participants take turns, alternating administering a blow to an opponent and assuming the agreed exposed position to endure the next one, using the same implement Trading Blows, or Trading licks, or -...

) or a spanking pyramid or paddle machine. A paddle machine can be used in conjunction with a spanking bench. Numerous celebrities, including Jessica Jaymes

Jessica Jaymes

Jessica Jaymes is an American pornographic actress.-Early life:Jaymes was born in Anchorage, Alaska to a Czechoslovakian and French mother and a Seminole father-who at an early age of ten relocated to Arizona. Her father was an under cover DEA agent and patrolmen...

, Jennifer Krum

Jennifer Krum

Jennifer Krum was Miss Amputee in 2004 and the first amputee model to appear on Playboy.com. She lost her left hand and forearm due to an automobile accident at the age of 5...

, Haydn Porter, Tabitha Stevens

Tabitha Stevens

Tabitha Stevens is an American pornographic actress and frequent on-air guest of radio personality Howard Stern....

 and Victoria Zdrok

Victoria Zdrok

Victoria Nika Zdrok is a pornographic actress, author, and model of Ukrainian origin. She was chosen as a Playboy Playmate in October 1994. In June 2002 she became Penthouse magazine's Pet of the Month, later being chosen as their 2004 Penthouse Pet of the Year...

, have mounted Howard Stern's

Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...

spanking bench to be paddled by his paddle machine, the "Robospanker".

External links

• "Corporal punishment in US schools" at World Corporal Punishment Research