Prügelstrafe in den USA: Jungen dreimal häufiger geschlagen als Mädchen
Eine Studie der Human-Rights-Watch-Organisation untersuchte die Praxis, daß in 20 Staaten der USA Schüler (und Kindergartenkinder) zur körperlichen Bestrafung mit sogenannten paddels (Holzbretter mit Griff) geschlagen werden.Dabei ist auffällig, daß der Großteil der Opfer männlich ist (annährend 80%). In der Studie heißt es wie folgt:
Boys are subjected to corporal punishment at much higher rates than girls: nationwide, boys make up 78.3 percent of those paddled, while girls make up 21.7 percent. Boys are paddled more than girls in all states that use corporal punishment. For instance, in Mississippi, 74.2 percent of those paddled in schools are boys, while in Texas, 78.7 percent of those paddled are boys.Ein Lehrer vermutet, diese Differenz ergebe sich daraus, daß es gesellschaftlich akzeptierter sei Jungen zu schlagen als Mädchen. Zudem seien Mädchen "zerbrechlicher" und könnten unbewußt schwanger sein.
One high school teacher suggested one possible reason for the gender disparity in paddling, noting that at her school it was common practice to "stay away from hitting the girls. I guess they're more fragile, and a lot of them could be pregnant and we wouldn't know it."Ein Vater bestätigt das. Er sagt, seine Tochter dürfe nicht geschlagen werden. Zu seinen Jungen hingegen wäre er selbst "extrem streng" und sie würden ohnehin im Leben mit "verschiedenen Hindernissen konfrontiert". Er selbst schlage sie täglich und vermutet, sie würden ihn deshalb für "hart" halten.
A father of two boys and a girl felt that it was more acceptable for boys to be paddled than girls. He explained, "My little girl—don't you put your hands on her…. As far as my boys, I am super hard on them. For one, they are young black men and they are faced with different obstacles in life. I get on them every day, and I know they say, 'Man, my dad is tough.'"Darüber hinaus werden Jungen mit größeren paddels und härter geschlagen.
Many interviewees reported that boys were beaten more harshly than girls. A middle school boy in Mississippi observed that one of his teachers "paddle the boys real hard and when he paddle the girls he don't really hit them." One student reported that there are smaller paddles for girls: "They use a short one for girls and a long one for the boys."Wenig verwunderlich: Zu diesem Sexismus und Ageismus kommt auch Rassismus und Homophobie hinzu. So werden Mädchen, die sich homosexuell verhalten, härter geschlagen, und farbige Mädchen doppelt sooft geschlagen, wie weiße.
One middle school student, however, told us that "[s]ome girls that act fast like they're gay or something … they'll get hit real hard. When they be trying to feel other girls." [...]Manchen Lehrern und Eltern gefällt nicht, daß den Kindern vermittelt wird, es sei in Ordnung, wenn Männer Frauen schlagen. Daß es genauso wenig in Ordnung ist, daß z.B. Männer Männer schlagen, artikuliert keiner von ihnen.
African-American students are paddled at more than twice the rate than might be expected given their percentage of the student population: African Americans constitute 17.1 percent of the nationwide student population, but 35.6 percent of those paddled. Though girls as a group are paddled less than boys, African-American girls are more than twice as likely to be subjected to paddling as their white counterparts.
Corporal punishment teaches both boys and girls that violence is acceptable when used against a weaker person. Psychologists argue there is a connection between corporal punishment and accepting or perpetrating domestic violence later in life. A Mississippi teacher and mother asked, "What are we teaching our young women when a school principal can swat a ... young woman on the behind? We're saying that it's okay for a man to beat a woman. I just don't get that at all. It's a little too close to ... something that we don't want in our families—men beating on women."
Parents of both girls and boys were concerned about the messages their children received in school. A Texas mother explained her reasons for opting out of corporal punishment for her now 19-year-old daughter: "I tell the principal one of the reasons that I'm not going to let you hit my daughter is that I don't want you conditioning her to accept abuse later. I mean domestic violence." A Mississippi father was concerned about his son, after the father went to school and observed a 12-year-old girl being beaten by a male teacher: "I didn't want my own son to see, to know it was okay to hit little girls."
Quelle: "A Violent Education / Corporal Punishment of Children in US Public Schools", 19. August 2009, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/08/19/violent-education
antisexismus.de/pruegelstrafe (etwa 4803 Zeichen)
Martin Pätzold, 17. September 2009