The major difference between police or military action and punishments carried out in schools is the level of public accountability.
There is no pleasant way to say it, six strokes of the cane is a school punishment that causes actual bodily harm. For that to be acceptable, there has to be confidence that the teacher who decides on that course of action, and carries it out, is doing so for a justifiable reason and in fair measure. The punisher must not only have the trust of the parent who has placed the child in the teacher’s care, but the child must have confidence that he or she is being treated fairly. Sadly, there were many occasions in the past when this was not the case.