That's what you'd think if you read the breathless media hype about a study by Human Rights Watch that found minority children are more likely to be beaten paddled than white children at school.
African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.
The study also found:
—In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.
—Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.
—Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.
Well, the situation isn't quite what Human Rights Watch says it is.
Voice in the Wilderness did a li'l Googling and discovered that statistics are funny things.
--Minority children outnumber white children 2 to 1 in schools.
--60.5% of black families were not traditional, two parent homes, 30.1% for Hispanics, 12.7% for Asian families, and 40% for other, non-white races compared to 23.2% for white families.
--Children from nontraditional households tend to show more behavioral problems.
In other words, the problem isn't the spanking. The problem is that the children exhibiting behavioral problems are more likely to be minorities. But that doesn't make as good a story, does it?
H/T to Lone Star Times.
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