The New Westminster school board is preparing to decide whether or not to throw its support behind a campaign to criminalize spanking and other forms of child corporal punishment.
At its Nov. 24 public meeting, trustees will vote on a motion to support Corrine’s Quest, a group working to ban the physical punishment of children.
The organization wants the federal government to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code, the so-called “spanking law.”
The law allows a parent or “person standing in the place of a parent” to use “force by way of correction towards a pupil or child … if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.”
Corrine’s Quest chair Kathy Lynn and former New Westminster MLA and MP Dawn Black first asked for the board’s support during a presentation at a Sept. 15 meeting.
Trustees will vote next Tuesday on the motion, which also calls for the board to write letters supporting the repeal of Section 43 to various federal and provincial ministers.
If the motion is approved, the board will also forward the matter to the B.C. School Trustees Association for consideration at its upcoming 2016 annual general meeting.
“In this day and age we should be moving beyond the necessity of physically punishing children to get them to comply,” states a rationale for the motion prepared by trustee Michael Ewen.
