Ingraham v. Wright (1977)
A Florida statute and Dade Country School Board policy provided for the punishment of students with one to five "licks" of a flat wooden paddle measuring less that two feet long, a few inches wide and half an inch thick.   During the 1970-1971 school year at Drew High School in Miami, after eighth grader James Ingraham was slow to respond to a teacher's instructions, he was given more than 20 blows while being held over a table.  He needed medical attention after the beating and missed 11 days of school.  Another Drew High School student, ninth grader Roosevelt Andrews, was hit on the arms after some minor infraction of the rules, and could not use one of his arms for a week. 

The students brought a lawsuit claiming that the paddling they received was a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.  They lost in the lower courts and then appealed to the US Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court rejected the students' arguments.  The court maintained that there was "historical and contemporary approval of reasonable corporal punishment."  From the days of the American Revolution, moderate force had been used by teachers to discipline students.  The court pointed out that corporal punishment remained an accepted practice in most states  At the time the court issued its decision, in 1977, only two states (Massachusetts and New Jersey) had banned corporal punishment.  The court also maintained that the Eighth Amendment was intended to protect prisoners, not students in schools:  "The openness of the public school and its supervision by the community afford significant safeguards against the kinds of abuses from which the Eighth Amendment protects the prisoner."

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1976/1976_75_6527

Can schools in your state use corporal punishment?  Check the list below. 

Alabama - yes

Alaska - no

Arizona - yes

Arkansas - yes

California - no

Colorado - yes

Connecticut - no

Delaware - no

Florida - yes

Georgia - yes

Hawaii - no

Idaho - yes

Illinois - no

Indiana - yes

Iowa  - no

Kansas - yes

Kentucky - yes

Louisiana - yes

Maine - no

Maryland - no

Massachusetts - no

Michigan - no

Minnesota - no

Mississippi - yes

Missouri - yes

Montana - no

Nevada - no

New Hampshire - no

New Jersey - no

New Mexico - yes

New York - no

North Carolina - yes

North Dakota - no

Ohio - yes

Oklahoma - yes

Oregon - no

Pennsylvania - yes

Rhode Island - no

South Carolina - yes

South Dakota - no

Tennessee - yes

Texas - yes

Utah - no

Vermont - no

Virginia - no

Washington - no

Washington DC - no

West Virginia - no

Wisconsin - no

Wyoming - yes

How many students are paddled each year? Who and where are they?

According to a 2008 study by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Unon, 223,190 students were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year.  Texas and Mississippi account for 40 percent of the total. African American and Native American students are more than twice as likely as other students to be paddled in schools.