Thank you for reporting the issue of corporal punishment taking place at Memphis Academy of Health Sciences.

If this school is not shut down by Wednesday, April 1, The Hitting Stops Here! will be on a returning flight on Thursday, April 2, to campaign in front of the school and to report to the officials and administrators overseeing this school until it is closed.  The “Chapel” event where the children enrolled in this school are beaten in a stage like setting before the entire student body, is only part of the brutal behavior that the children attending this school are being forced to endure.

After our interview with you, a few parents and children contacted The Hitting Stops Here! to offer information concerning the random and rampant abuse going on in this school.  Girls' hands are being damaged by Principal Curtis Weathers, a 6' 6" former football player.  He takes a leather strap 2" wide and nearly a 1/4" thick and slaps the girls on their hands ten consecutive times.  If the girls draw their hands back in pain and fear, he starts the count again on their potentially permanently nerve damaged hands.  The girls' crying does not stop Principal Weathers from continuing with the beatings.  The girls are lined up in full view of their peers waiting one by one for their turn to receive the blows to their hands.  If the girls do not make it through ten slaps, they are suspended and must take the ten slaps again when they return to school before resuming their classes.  The girls are not slapped on their hands if President of Middle

School, Ms. Biles, is available.  When Ms. Biles is present, the girls must assume a rump presentation posture while leaning on a chair that has been placed at the center floor.  They receive from Ms. Biles, five forceful blows to their buttocks, an erogenous zone.  Science has proven that such battering of the buttocks causes sexual confusion, low self esteem and a host of other issues.

The boys are paddled by Mr. Curtis Weathers in the same manner.  He beats the boys’ buttocks after he has looked down inside of their pants to see if they are wearing layered clothing (if so, they must take them off).  After he has grabbed the back of their pants yanking them up into their buttocks as tightly as possible causing severe pain and damage to their testes, he raises his arm back to strike them anywhere from five to fourteen blows.  Some students are being subjected to this abuse during each Friday “Chapel” event and have been since the beginning of the school year.  “Chapel” is the only time when students are permitted to laugh out loud and call out names to ridicule their peers without getting into trouble.  Other students hold their heads down and cover their ears during this sadistic event.  Reasons for paddlings may be, chewing gum, talking, laughing, kicking or swinging feet, dancing, picking up a pencil from the floor. 

Principal Weathers calls the paddles by names.  The bigger one is called, “The Terminator,” the smaller one is “Mr. Wood.”

There is a dreary room that students must sit in for more than four hours at a time when they are "bad."  There is nothing but old dusty things on the walls and around the room.  The paint is old too. 

During class when children have to go to the bathroom, teachers very often deny bathroom passes.  Children are left with having to wait to ask their next teacher because running into the restroom between classes is forbidden and cause for a paddling.  The next teacher may or may not grant permission to use the bathroom. 

The coach is also abusing the children.  He too, is a former athlete; not quite as tall as Mr. Weathers, but more stocky and just as intimidating.  He handles students forcefully and pushes them down to the ground telling them to “man up” if they cry.  He says things to tease them and to make them feel inadequate and wimpy if they cry during his “Physical Education” lessons.

I called the Memphis Police Dept. to find out if I can report a crime that I know of in Memphis even though I am from out of town.  They informed me that it did not matter whether I was from out of town and that I could give my report.  When I began telling my report, their response changed to, “We don't take reports by phone.  I can't help you...we don't handle that...” leaving me with no viable option for having these children protected right away.

The children attending this school are not being protected by their parents, the school, nor the community police. 

I will be in touch with you again, Mr. Holmes, and appreciate any help you may offer in having the proper authorities notified of our children’s unsafe condition.

Sincerely yours,

Paula Flowe, Director

The Hitting Stops Here!

A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere.

TheHittingStopsHere

.com

paulaflowe@thehittingstopshere.com

Board member, Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education

408.223.7797