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Children's advocates want the legislature to prohibit school personnel from hitting disabled students and to require districts to report instances of corporal punishment to the state Board of Education.

Districts reported 1,400 acts of corporal punishment last year to Action for Children North Carolina. Two districts that allow corporal punishment did not respond to the group's survey.

Twenty-six of the state's 115 school districts administer corporal punishment, according to the Action for Children report. None are in the Triangle.

Twenty more school districts allow corporal punishment, but reported they hit no students in the 2008-2009 school year. 

Three districts, Nash-Rocky Mount, Burke, and Robeson, accounted for more than half the reported instances, according to the group's numbers.

In past sessions, advocates have failed in their efforts to get the legislature to join 30 other states and ban corporal punishment.

This year, they are trying to get a limited ban for disabled students.

There are no figures on how many disabled students received corporal punishment last year, but a survey by the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office said that disabled students were punished by hitting 290 times in 2006, according to the Action for Children report.

The Senate killed a bill that would have required teachers to seek parental consent before they use corporal punishment on a student.

Lawmakers voted 21-25 against the bill, even after they adopted two amendments to try and garner more support for it.

While the bill's supporters said the bill was not about ending corporal punishment, its opponents said it would, since teachers and principals would not be willing to unevenly dispense discipline.

"If as many as one parent opts out of corporal punishment, you won't have corporal punishment in classrooms," said Phil Berger, the Senate Republican leader.

Corporal punishment is allowed in 55 of the state's 115 school districts.

A number of bills never made it past the legislature.

The bills would have:

Prohibited smoking in public spaces such as restaurants and workplaces.

Rolled back a law requiring most schools to open on or after Aug. 25.

Called for a public vote on banning same-sex marriage in the constitution.

Prohibited corporal punishment in schools.

Called for a public vote on amending the state constitution to bar governments from taking property for economic development purposes.

A full list after the jump.

As always, a number of bills didn't make it past Speed Week.

Although it's possible for a bill to be resurrected — either as a study or part of the budget — most bills that didn't pass before crossover yesterday are effectively dead.

A quick look at some of those that didn't make it:

Prohibit smoking in restaurants and other public places. Put a constitutional ban on gay marriage before voters. Ban spanking in public schools. Suspend executions for two years. Penalize owners of stolen guns who fail to report them promptly. Ban cell phone use while driving. Open state ethics hearings.

Click here for a fuller explanation of the bills.

Did the House contradict itself yesterday on schoolchildren?

On Facing South, blogger Chris Kromm notes that representatives rejected a bill that would have banned corporal punishment, but tentatively passed an anti-bullying bill:

That's an interesting message about protecting school kids from harm: Kids, don't taunt your fellow students. But teachers, whip the kids if you must.

Kromm blamed the "haste" of passing a number of bills during crossover week, though both bills were debated extensively.

Before we get to the roundup of Day 3 of Speed Week, here's what we've already covered on Wednesday:

Approved: A House bill would require equal insurance coverage for mental illnesses, a House bill would allow death row defendants to appeal on the basis of racial discrimination, a House bill would study the future of Dix Hill, a House bill would require politicians reveal donors to legal defense funds, a House bill would teach high schoolers about the state's safe surrender law and a House bill would allow Chapel Hill to experiment with publicly funded campaign.

Tentatively Approved: A House bill that would make schools write anti-bullying policies.

Rejected: A House bill that would have banned corporal punishment in schools and a House bill that would have raised the limit of undisclosed campaign contributions back to $100.

The House rejected a bill that would have banned spanking in public schools.

Though a majority of states have banned corporal punishment in schools, House members sided with concerns that getting rid of that option would lead to less discipline in schools and more wayward youths.

Some spoke from personal experience.

"I had one teacher, I told him later that I thought he whipped me like a rented mule," said Rep. Ronnie Sutton, a Pembroke Democrat. "But I truly believe that I would have served time in prison had I not had the discipline that I had in school."

About one in three school districts across the state, including Wake, Durham and Orange, have policies prohibiting corporal punishment. The rest allow it, including Chatham, Johnston, Franklin and Harnett counties.

Advocates cited dozens of national organizations that oppose corporal punishment in schools, including the American Medical Association, the NAACP and the National Association of State Boards of Education. But opponents noted that the N.C. Board of Education and N.C. School Boards Association had not stepped up in favor of the bill.

Rep. John Blust still remembers the punishment he received at the hands of Mary Ella Moore Smith.

As a sixth grader, the Greensboro Republican was something of a "cut-up" and frequently got on the bad side of Guilford Middle School's strictest teacher.

"I can remember being dragged by my ear, getting paddled and standing with my nose in a circle at the blackboard," he told Dome. "And all she had to do was call my mother and I got it even worse at home."

Similar punishments might run afoul of local school board regulations today.

But Blust filed a bill this week that would specifically allow principals, teachers and aides the right to use "reasonable force" in order to "maintain order and proper discipline" in the classroom.

He says he wants to protect the Mrs. Smiths still working.

"Today, she'd be fired before her first day," he said. "And we sit and wonder why we aren't getting the academic achievement from students."