Published: October 1, 1995

Spanking In School

After ordering prison chain gangs back to work on Alabama's highways this year, Gov. Fob James Jr. turned his attention to another old-fashioned punishment: spanking in schools.

In August, the Republican governor signed into law a high-profile bill promising Alabama teachers that if they decide to spank a student, their school boards will be obliged to back them if they are taken to court. The so-called teacher-immunity law, which James had proposed to the state legislature, follows a similar one passed earlier this year in Virginia.

The Virginia law clarifies the state's ban on corporal punishment, allowing teachers to use "reasonable and necessary'' physical force to maintain order and prevent violence. The law promises that teachers will be backed in court if they use such...