WHAT THE RECORD SHOWS: Ohio banned this in 2009. One district reported 36 of them.
Ohio Revised Code 3319.41 prohibits corporal punishment in public schools. It has since House Bill 1 took effect October 16, 2009.
Federal Civil Rights Data Collection records for the 2021-22 school year show 36 reported instances of corporal punishment in Ohio public schools. Every one came from a single district: Frontier Local, in New Matamoras, Washington County — far southeastern Ohio, on the Ohio River, about 30 road miles upriver from Marietta and directly across the water from West Virginia.
Frontier High/Middle School: 14
Newport Elementary: 13
New Matamoras Elementary: 9
Eleven of the students had a disability. Nine were served under IDEA — federal law, with its own requirements for how schools respond to student behavior. Two more had Section 504 plans. The district recorded 13 instances involving those 11 students.
The year before, Ohio’s entire statewide count was one.
I have found no news coverage, litigation, or state action involving this district on this. That is the part worth asking about.
Sources: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection public-use file (SCH/Corporal Punishment.csv; SCH/Enrollment.csv), district NCES ID 3905049. Ohio Revised Code 3319.41. Comparison year: 2020-21 CRDC public-use file.
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