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BOARD OF REGENTS PROHIBITS COPORAL PUNISHMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Corporal punishment was banned in New York State public schools yesterday by the State Board of Regents, after a debate of several months over whether it had the authority to take such action.
The regulation, adopted at the monthly meeting of the Regents in Albany, takes effect Sept. 1.
Previously, corporal punishment was legal unless a school district specifically prohibited it, as New York City and an additional 136 of the state's 750 school systems have done over the years. Private and parochial schools will not be affected by the ban.
Exceptions Noted
The rule adopted yesterday distinguishes between force used for punishment, which will be unacceptable, and force used for protection, which will be acceptable. The key passage states:
''No teacher, administrator, officer, employee or agent of a school district in this state, or a board of cooperative educational services in this state, shall use corporal punishment against a pupil.''
It will be legal, however, for school employees to use reasonable force to protect themselves, pupils and school property, as well as to restrain or remove a disruptive pupil.
Most of the 16 members of the Board of Regents, the panel that sets educational policy for the state, had long favored a ban on corporal punishment, which generally includes spanking, paddling and any other form of physical force to reprimand a student. But the Regents had been uncertain whether the authority for a ban resided with them or the Legislature.
Robert D. Stone, counsel to the State Education Department, had advised the Regents that since corporal punishment is permitted by the state penal code, only the Legislature could outlaw the practice.
However, some opponents of corporal punishment argued that the Regents had the power to act.
''All it does - all it claims to do,'' Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried said of the relevant section of the penal code, ''is say that under certain circumstances a teacher will not be criminally prosectued for using corporal punishment. The fact that something is declared 'not criminal' does not mean that it cannot be regulated by appropriate civil authorities.''
Mr. Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan, is assistant majority leader in the Assembly and helped lead the effort to persuade the Regents to adopt the rule. Strong backing for the action also came from the state Parent-Teacher Association and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
''We are gratified because the Regents have finally stated explicitly that education and physical force are fundamentally incompatible,'' said Thomas B. Stoddard, legal director of the state civil liberties union.
The Attorney General's office issued an advisory opinion since the Regents' meeting in January that the Regents could ban corporal punishment.
''Our view is that the Regents' action is in compliance with the law,'' said Nathan Riley, a spokesman for Attorney General Robert Abrams. ''Teachers are not prohibited from using force in a critical situation.''
In other action at yesterday's meeting, Willard A. Genrich announced that he would resign next month as Chancellor of the Board of Regents. The 70-year-old Chancellor said he would remain as a board member until his term expires in 1988.
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