In California private schools, teachers can still legally hit kids.

This may shock you. This may appall you. But this isn’t the 19th Century—the things you read about in history books. This is a real, present-day danger—an active threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of children. State-condoned violence against kids.

If a ten-year-old with ADHD can’t sit still in their math class, then a faculty member has the legal right to take matters into their own hands. If a teacher with a track record for violence loses their temper, then the law turns a blind eye. These children are vulnerable, easy targets for brutal abuse, too scared to raise their voices.

California has always been a harbinger for progression; yet somehow California children remain at the mercy of a cruel, archaic law. We are a group of students who seek to change this—to establish justice for all California students by legally barring corporal punishment in California private schools. 

As a grassroots organisation, we require all the support we can get. Corporal punishment‘s continued presence in private schools is more than just a travesty—it is a relic. The first step you can take to end its barbaric reign is signing this petition.