JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri state Sen. Joe Keaveny wants to end the practice of corporal punishment in public schools.

Keaveny introduced legislation this year to prohibit the state’s public schools from using corporal punishment, or spanking, on misbehaving students. Missouri is one of 19 states that still allows school officials to spank students, if necessary, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Keaveny described the practice as “a fairly archaic form discipline that most states have already done away with,” Ed Week reports.

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“Times are changing, and as a state, we need to change with them,” the senator said in a press release. “Thirty, 40 years ago, corporal punishment was culturally accepted. Many viewed it as a deterrent.

“But modern studies, and first-person accounts from administrators and teachers alike, have debunked that belief. It’s not an effective form of discipline. Also, most parents are no longer comfortable with the idea of a non-family member, much less a public employee, administering this type of punishment,” he said.

Keaveny introduced a similar measure last year that would have applied to both public and private schools, and the bill passed out of a committee but never reached the Senate floor, the Dispatch reports.

This year’s legislation, Senate Bill 241, was scheduled for a committee hearing today, but was pulled from the schedule. It remains unclear whether the bill will receive consideration.

“It’s often hard to get legislation off the ground following the week-long legislative spring break, which begins Friday,” according to the Dispatch.

The 18 other states that currently allow school employees to spank students include Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, and North and South Carolina, Ed Week reports.

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Many schools within those states, however, opt not to use corporal punishment, according to the news site.

The U.S. Department of Education provides information on the use of corporal punishment – including frequency based on race, ethnicity and disability status – through its Civil Rights Data Collection.

In Missouri, “the state’s Department of Education and Secondary Education requires each school district’s written discipline policy to include a policy on corporal punishment,” the Dispatch reports.

“Should it be used, the local school board must determine how it will be used and whether a parent will be notified or can opt for a different form of discipline.”

Keaveny is a St. Louis Democrat and Senate minority leader.

The legislation in Missouri comes as parents in Florida are chastising officials at Jacksonville’s Zarephath Academy, where a student recorded a teacher paddling student Roshika Smith, 18, for running in the cafeteria, News4Jax.com reports.

During the March 4 incident, male students held Smith down while a teacher paddled her backside in front of about 100 students, several of which recorded the incident and posted it to Facebook and Instagram, according to the news site.

“Once they got me, they flip me over and grab me by my arms and legs,” Smith told News 4. “So once they did that, my teacher just felt like they got me so she paddled me on my butt, close to my back. So for two days last week I didn’t come to school.”

District officials told the news site the girl’s mother signed a permission form allowing for corporal punishment, but would not comment on whether the school’s policy allows for other students to restrain their classmates during the act.