But the bottom line is this – every child is important, and every child should, in an ideal world, get what they need. Kids who can benefit from corporal punishment have as much right for it to be available, and kids who could be harmed by it have to be protected from its use. And the thing is, if it is available as an option, it’s possible to do that – to only use it with the kids who need it, and not use it with the kids who don’t. There is, at least, the possibility of every child getting what they need – and I believe you can make that possibility a good and decent one.
If it isn’t available, you make it automatically and absolutely impossible for every child to get what they need. Right from the start. Now if this was the only way to protect the other children, that might be justified – but it isn’t.