A brief history of corporal punishment in the public schools, a review of major federal court decisions regarding corporal punishment and due process for students, and an analysis of current trends in disciplinary policy are presented in this report. The conservative trend revealed in school discipline is identified in large part as a response to…

Principals, teachers, and counselors in 15 Indiana high schools were interviewed to determine what procedures they believed were required in various disciplinary actions, and what authority they believed had sanctioned these procedures. The interviewees came from small, medium, and large schools in rural and urban settings. Nearly 71 percent of…