Email Us: TalkToUs@BanPaddlingAR.com
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Educate.
Advocate.
Repeat.
Email Us: TalkToUs@BanPaddlingAR.com
About us
- We are teachers, nurses, mothers, fathers—and above all, we are Arkansans.
“I believe that all children, starting from infancy, have bodily autonomy, and respecting this autonomy is essential to their development and safety. Paddling is an unsafe practice that violates a child’s right to bodily autonomy, is detrimental to their social emotional health, and ignores scientific research on discipline.”
~ Chelsey
Advocate
WELCOME TO
Arkansans Against School Paddling
Arkansans Against School Paddling is the official Arkansas State Chapter of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children, a national non-profit organization. We work to engage school personnel, school board members, and state legislators in an effort to ban corporal punishment statewide.
We are a diverse team of passionate advocates with educational and medical expertise.
Mission Statement
To protect the safety and dignity of every student in Arkansas.
Objective
To prohibit anyone from striking a child in Arkansas schools.
Join us!
Help us stop paddling in all Arkansas schools! Send us a message and let us know how you can help!
WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE'VE COME FROM
Our Origin Story
In 2020 a group of passionate child advocates came together in search of information regarding school-sanctioned corporal punishment in Arkansas. Led by educator Tate Aldrich, this group of volunteers began pouring over district policies across the state, and what they found shocked them. By their count, 67% of school districts in Arkansas still endorsed paddling students. Their findings led them to publish blog posts “Teachers Can Legally Hit Your Children in 19 States. Let’s Talk About It,” “Saving Our Children from Violence When Schools Are the Abusers,” and “Teachers Legally Hitting Students as a Disciplinary Measure Has to Stop,” and eventually coalesce around a single mission: banning school-sanctioned corporal punishment statewide.
They soon uncovered other statistics, too, particularly those that highlight the disparities in education. For example, administrators are twice as likely to strike a Black student than a White student in Arkansas. And a vast majority of schools that endorse corporal punishment—89%—can be categorized as mid- or high-level poverty districts. Because the research proves corporal punishment’s detrimental effects on young learners, these inequities are unconscionable—and run contrary to the antiracist and trauma-informed practices emblematic of world-class education.
Arkansans Against School Paddling’s motto is simple: “Educate. Advocate. Repeat.” But it’s more than motto; it’s a promise. By providing school districts with an annual, free resource to help them rethink their policies and by engaging lawmakers across the state, we work to fulfill that promise. Our goal is to protect the dignity and safety of every child in Arkansas, and we won’t rest until corrective violence is illegal in schools.
As members of Arkansans Against School Paddling, we....
- …agree that our advocacy is social justice work that aims—by promoting equity, cultural competence, and trauma awareness—to repeal a practice that can disadvantage children.
- …promise to help schools—despite their indifference—and to focus on the rights of children whose health and dignity those schools serve to safeguard.
- …believe that every educator wants every child to succeed—it’s simply their own socialization that has confused their methods.
- …eschew the sharing of content that examines the sexual implications or lasting sexualization of corporal punishment—the practice is heinous enough.
- …denounce elitist language that temporalizes corporal punishment (words).
- …strive to continually understand and explain our advocacy work in terms of teaching—not parenting.
- …promise to never publish digital content with images of distressed children—our purpose is to protect the vulnerable, not to exploit them.
- …promote nonviolence—even in language used casually or figuratively.
- …pledge to respond with humility and alacrity to all accountability—we want to represent the importance of lifelong learning.
- …commit ourselves to protecting every child in Arkansas until a ban on school-sanctioned corporal punishment is enacted.
about Our Founder
In 2020, Tate M.Ed., an award-winning teacher, current doctoral fellow, and instructor at the University of Arkansas organized a group of passionate children advocates to come together in search of information regarding school-sanctioned corporal punishment in Arkansas. After discovering that nearly 67% of Arkansas school districts still endorse paddling they established, Arkansans Against School Paddling (AASP), the official Arkansas State Chapter of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children. Tate’s expertise lies in both trauma-informed instruction and dialogue, and he founded AASP as a gathering space for advocates who believe in protecting children from corrective violence.
Within its first year of operation, Tate and the team published a series of blog posts, “Teachers Can Legally Hit Your Children in 19 States. Let’s Talk About It,” “Saving Our Children from Violence When Schools Are the Abusers,” and “Teachers Legally Hitting Students as a Disciplinary Measure Has to Stop,”, shipped free AASP Toolkits to 222 Guidance Counselors, and Tate and Board Member Yolanda were keynote speakers at the National Teacher Leadership Conference.
Last year, AASP expanded its Board to 6 members, launched a new website, partnered with Citizens First Congress and Teach Plus Arkansas to send nearly 100 Arkansans legislators information on “Arkansas, Corporal Punishment, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline.”, and sent its first survey to over 1,200 Principals, Assistant Principals, and Counselors to understand school leaderships perspectives on the use of corporal punishment.
Tate and his founding board members created AASP as a gathering space for advocates who believe in protecting children from corrective violence. In 2023, we look ahead with the founding motto, “Education. Advocate. Repeat.”
474,337
Approximately 474,337 students were enrolled in Arkansas public-school districts during the 2022-2023 academic year.
3,518
Across all districts, there were a total of 3,518 reports of CP being used on children.
127
These reports came from 127 of the 171 identified traditional public-school districts that permitted CP during that academic year.
MEET OUR
Board Member
Esaa
Board Director
Email: esaa@endhitting.org
Dr. Esaa Mohammad Sabti Samarah is a Licensed Master Social Worker in Arkansas and an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas School of Social Work. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Work from Florida State University. His work is deeply informed by his experience as a Child Protective Investigator in Florida and as a Personal Care Assistant for adolescents with special healthcare needs in middle school settings.
In 2022, he relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas, with his wife and two-year-old daughter. Shortly thereafter, he joined Arkansans Against School Paddling to lead its research efforts. In 2024, he was unanimously elected director by the group’s membership.
Esaa’s research interests are grounded in his professional experience and focus on improving child welfare systems and preventing child maltreatment.
Ellen
Board Member
Email: ellen_chiocca@yahoo.com
Ellen is an Affiliate Associate Teaching Professor with the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing in Columbia, Missouri. She has been a pediatric nurse for 44 years, 27 of which were as a pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP). In her role as PNP working with homeless families and children, Ellen began to see that violence against adults in the shelters was not tolerated, but children could be hit with impunity.
Ellen started a No-Hit policy for all ages at two shelters where she worked as a PNP. She also believes that children should never be hit by their teacher, that they deserve the same rights to be free of violence as adults are.
Myranda
Board Member
Email: mjames@endhitting.org
Myranda James, MA is a dedicated advocate for children’s rights, serving on the boards of the U.S. Alliance to End the Hitting of Children and Arkansans Against School Paddling. She earned her Master’s in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University in 2022. From 2018 to 2020, she served as a Peace Corps Literacy Volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean. Since 2020, Myranda has been the Cultural Exchange Coordinator for Nurturing Minds in Africa, a nonprofit empowering vulnerable girls in Tanzania through quality education, life skills, and entrepreneurship, helping them grow into community leaders.
Verona
Board Member
Email: callthelawlady@outlook.com
Attorney Verona Swanigan, earned her law degree from Northern Illinois University in 2005, and was inducted into the Phi Alpha Delta for her excellent academic achievements. She also has a Master’s degree in Forensic Psychology and Organizational Behavior from the California School of Professional Psychology. She earned a dual Bachelor’s degree in three years from Winona State University-Minnesota in Spanish and Psychology. Attorney Swanigan fluently speaks and writes Spanish, and previously attended La Universidad de Hispana Anglo y Francis in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. While living in Mexico, she built a strong affection towards connecting multiple races and providing cultural diverse information to business owners and social service providers. She believes in taking time out of her day for community involvement, and to assist others in developing their futures. Accordingly, Attorney Swanigan quarterly goes into the schools to give inspirational speeches, hosts a clothing and coat drive for Christmas, and provides advancement information to everyone she meets.
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Tashan
Board Member
Email: roxshancc@gmail.com
Tashan is an Arkansas native graduate of Little Rock Central High school. She continued her education receiving an Associates Degree from the University of Pulaski Tech in General Studies then went on to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to receive a Bachelors in Sociology with a minor in Psychology.
As a wife and mother, community and education has been the driving force for her 20 year community activism.
As Founder/CEO of Lessons and Blessings Micro school while currently working as a four year substitute teacher at a public charter school she has insight on how paddling can be detrimental to a child’s self esteem and healthy development she believes in educating and empowering communities.
Meaghan
Board Member
Email: mmingo@nd.edu
Mingo is a sociologist whose research focuses on how race, place, and institutions shape the lives of children and youth, with a focus on the education and criminal legal systems. Her current work uses ethnographic methods to examine school discipline and the treatment of Black children in the rural U.S. South. Mingo previously worked in the nonprofit and corporate sectors as an evaluator, researcher, and director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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Lance
Advocate
Originally from Arkadelphia, AR, Lance LeVar (he/him) has over two decades of experience as an educator including 14 years in administration at all levels of education. He served as a teacher, high school and elementary school assistant principal, middle school principal and district administrator in multiple districts in Arkansas and Utah. Lance also worked as a college adjunct faculty at two different colleges in Utah. He has presented at multiple education conferences and provided training and consultations for school districts across the U.S. on topics such as multicultural education, instruction, professional learning communities, Title IX and Section 504.
Lance is currently a Public School Program Advisor in the Equity Assistance Center (EAC) in the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) of the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). In this position, he has facilitated dozens of in person and virtual trainings with school districts and educational service cooperatives across Arkansas on Title IX, Section 504 and anti-bullying policies and procedures.”
Chelsey
Advocate
Chelsey is a pediatric occupational therapy assistant. In this capacity, she has heard countless stories from families of children who were being punished physically or emotionally in places that they should feel safe (like at schools and at home).
Using gentle, trauma-informed, relationship-based approaches rooted in brain-based science, Chelsey helps parents and others supporting children to understand what may lie behind challenging behaviors—always keeping the safety and connection with the child at the forefront.
Tessa
Advocate
Tessa is an Occupational therapist, who earned her Master’s Degree from University of Central Arkansas in 2008. She currently works at Youth Home in Little Rock, where she treats adolescents struggling with mental health issues. She is an adoptive mom of a child who is currently in the 4th grade in public schools.
Early on it was very apparent that her son had behavior issues related to his past trauma. Although Tessa grew up in a culture where spanking was encouraged, a paddling incident at her son’s school led her to research trauma and the brain. As she puts it, “the body remembers all trauma even if the brain doesn’t consciously remember.” Tessa has been advocating for the dignity and safety of children ever since.
Jeffery
Advocate
Jeffery is an Arkansas school administrator. As a Dean of Students where he was previously employed, Jeffery was required to paddle students. After witnessing firsthand the traumatic effects of the practice, he looked into statistics regarding corporal punishment and found disturbing disparities: across the U.S., Black and Brown students are paddled at much higher rates than their White peers.
This led him to seek other methods to deal with student behavior—methods that do not involve being physical but more so working with the child and their family to get to the root cause of the behavior, while respecting the child’s dignity.
"Violence is its own living history—and there's no seeing its end with being its end."
Educate.
Advocate.
Repeat.
© Copyright 2026 Arkansans Against School Paddling