Stranger than fiction: Shorty gets paddled

Posted by Traditional School Discipline February 02, 2021

Stranger than fiction: Shorty gets paddled

The paddle has for decades been the weapon of choice among educators in schools in America. It is still legal in about a third of the states so remains a reality in the lives of many school-going children. Paddling has never made much of an entry into school fiction in the States but it is big business in video stories.

The scenarios hardly change. The miscreant is called into the Dean of Discipline’s office and after a few formalities the paddle is taken from the hook on the wall, the boy assumes the position across the desk and swatting commences.

Spanking Central has produced a number of these video stories like the one featuring Rex below.

Man’s Hand Films has also had a go at this, see for example The Vice Principal.

But true life trumps fiction with The

It was set in American high schools and the basic idea was to follow encounters between misbehaving students and principals. Some events featured students being late to class, truancy, food fights, smoking, disrespecting teachers, insubordination and disruptive conduct in class.

The extract Shorty Gets Paddled – as we say in England, does what it says on the tin. The Boston Globe described it this way: “[Principal] Steve Halter, seems the most effective at keeping kids in line, perhaps because he has the most medieval tools at his disposal. As per school policy, his students are given a choice between a half-day of Saturday suspension and three licks on the rear with a wooden paddle.’

Variety commented, ‘The corporal punishment discretely occurs offscreen, suggesting that limitations pertaining to depicting teens in this context might have constrained the proceedings. If there’s a real star here initially, it’s Halter, whose Andy Griffith drawl and demeanor prove strangely absorbing. Even one of his students calls him a “redneck.”’

On the show, Principal Halter tells viewers, “What many people do not realise about corporal punishment is that it is an option to the students, it is not mandatory that they receive it. As the students comes into the office for corporal punishment we talk briefly about how we are going to administer it and if they are still in agreement we direct them over to this chair and we start here and they get three licks with a paddle [pictured below] like here and once that’s done the student signs he’s okay and then they go back to class.”