Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives rejected a bill Tuesday that would have prohibited school staff from inflicting corporal punishment on students with disabilities.
House Bill 1028 fell six votes short of advancing in the Republican-dominated chamber. The bill was defeated with 45 votes in favor and 43 votes against, failing to reach the majority threshold of 51 votes.
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The bill was introduced by Republican state Rep. John Talley and garnered support from several members of his own party but sparked a biblical debate among the GOP that led to its failure.
Corporal punishment in schools is still legal in a number of states, including Oklahoma, where the state’s Department of Education has prohibited such disciplinary measures on students with disabilities. Talley’s proposed bill would have enshrined the state regulation into law.
One Republican lawmaker, state Rep. Jim Olsen, said the bill would violate “God’s word and God’s counsel” and cited Proverbs 29:15, which says, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”
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Talley rejected Olsen’s interpretation and said, “Why don’t we follow all the other Old Testament laws? There’s about 4,000 of them, and one of them is to not allow wives to wear jewelry or stone your child if they’re disobedient.”
“The students I’m trying to protect with this bill are those who probably don’t understand why they’re receiving corporal punishment,” Talley said, according to the Washington Post. “And having a school spanking them for doing something they don’t know any better to do seems absolutely wrong.”
