# When Parent–Teacher Collaboration Turns Violent: Corporal Punishment in American Schools and Subsequent (Secondary) Trauma

## TL;DR

This study explores how corporal punishment in schools, often with parent involvement, causes lasting trauma and worsens racial disparities among students.

## Contribution

The study reveals new insights into the psychological and academic impacts of corporal punishment and its racial dimensions.

## Key findings

- Students who experienced corporal punishment often faced additional punishment at home if their families discovered it.
- Trauma from witnessing punishment affected peers, causing fear or anger.
- Black American participants perceived racial undertones in their punishment regardless of the perpetrator's race.

## Abstract

Methods. Through the lens of childhood trauma theory, a qualitative phenomenological study was conducted using purposive and snowball sampling methods to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of former students with corporal punishment and how those experiences have shaped their academic and psychological outcomes. Interviews were conducted via Zoom with 19 men and women of different ages and races who attended schools in Mississippi. Results/Conclusions. The study revealed that parents and school personnel collaborated to punish the student corporally both on campus and at home. Related, beaten students did not share their punishment with their parents/caregivers, and if their families did find out, they received another beating at home. There was a general lack of consistency in how and who administered corporal punishment. In addition to the well-documented ways that corporal punishment is administered in school, we also found that students were made to hold painful positions or perform painful tasks. There were also peer effects of trauma, with students experiencing fear or anger following a friend or classmate being beaten in front of them. Race was an influence if the abused students felt that their punishment was racist, with Black American participants feeling there were racial undertones regardless of the perpetrator’s race. The study’s findings align with those of previously conducted research, but also extend them and can be used to create policy to allow schools to address trauma and create instructional practices that eliminate the fear and racial disparities that have been proven to exist in schools with corporal punishment.