Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - Significance, Cruel And Unusual Punishment?, "the Openness Of The School Environment", "punishments So Barbaric And Inhumane"

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - Significance

The Court upheld the principle that corporal punishment is permissible in the public schools, that excessive corporal punishment is not usually a constitutional violation though it may be a criminal one, and that students and their parents are not entitled to a formal hearing before corporal punishment is administered. Generally, the decision has made it far more difficult for parents and students…

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - Further Readings

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - Cruel And Unusual Punishment?

Ingraham and Andrews filed suit against their principal, the others in the principal's office who had helped punish them, and the superintendent of Dade County schools. They were filing not just for themselves, but also as a class action on behalf of all Dade County students. They claimed that the type of corporal punishment common at their school deprived them of their rights under the Eighth and…

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - "the Openness Of The School Environment"

Justice Powell, writing for the majority, laid out three major arguments. First, Powell declared that the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment does not apply to public schools. In almost all cases, Powell wrote, the clause applies only to criminals. The clause is particularly inappropriate to schools, he argued, "in light of the openness of the school environment, [which] a…

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - "punishments So Barbaric And Inhumane"

Justice White, joined by Justices Brennan, Marshall, and Stevens, strongly disagreed with virtually every part of the majority argument. First, he said, there was no evidence that the Eighth Amendment was meant to apply only to criminals. Second, even though schools were more open places than prisons, that did not guarantee that no violations of the Eighth Amendment would ever occur there. Third, …

Ingraham et al. v. Wright et al. - Corporal Punishment Continues

Ingraham v. Wright has made it much more difficult for parents and students to oppose corporal punishments in the federal courts. Because the decision in Ingraham suggested that severe and unjustified punishments be pursued as civil or criminal cases in state court, victims of corporal punishment have no national standard for which to appeal. Instead, they must rely on each state's definition of w…