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A state bill to ban corporal punishment in North Carolina's public schools, which had passed two House committees, failed in the full House by a vote of 60 opposed and 50 in favor. The Senate companion bill did not gain committee support and will not come before the full Senate this session.

During discussion of the bill in the House, Robeson County Rep. Ronnie Sutton explained how he had been helped by an average of two spankings a week from first through eighth grades. He said, "I know I was a tough problem to handle in school as it was. . . . I had one teacher that I told him later I think he whipped me like a rented mule. But I truly believe I would have served time in prison had I not had the discipline that I had in school.”

Sixty-eight of North Carolina's 115 school districts have policies allowing the use of corporal punishment; state law gives all districts the authority to use it. Among the 68 districts with policies allowing corporal punishment, 24 actually used corporal punishment in the 2005-2006 school year. Burke County used it most frequently (508 times); Robeson County used it the second most frequently (297 times).