In 2015, the assistant principal at Escambia County Middle School was indicted for child abuse after paddling a fifth-grader.
The boy had been disruptive during a school assembly, according to court records, and had gotten into a fight with another child. The assistant principal, Angela Parham, and other school staff testified that she followed school board-approved procedure for the corporal punishment, including having it witnessed by other teachers. In the days following the paddling, the student’s mother took pictures of bruising on her son’s buttocks and filed a police report.
During an evidentiary hearing in the case, District Attorney Stephen Billy asked Parham whether school policy allowed her to cause physical injury to a student.
“Our school policy allows corporal punishment,” she responded.
“Does it allow you to use force against a student?” he asked.
“If corporal punishment is force, it allows us to use corporal punishment.”
After more back-and-forth, the district attorney asked Parham: “You’re administering corporal punishment, in your mind, how much force is allowed on a student?”
“I don’t know how to answer that,” she said. “I don’t know how to measure force.”