The latest on the corporal punishment issue in Archdiocese of New Orleans

For several weeks now my Archbishop has been in a little controversy surrounding St. Augustine High School and their use of the paddle for corporal punishment. The Archbishop has said no more; the school has said it's our call. Since I will never publically disagree with my Archbishop I thought tonight I could share this spot; in his own words: Archhbishop Gregory Aymond said Friday he has given administrators and friends of St. Augustine High School a consultant’s confidential report that apparently notes injuries and parental complaints flowing from the school’s use of corporal punishment, injecting a new note into the weeks-long controversy over the practice. Archbishop Gregory Aymond said St. Augustine 'has been, and continues to be, a bright light in the city of New Orleans and as a Catholic school.' St. Augustine administrators, alumni and friends have characterized Aymond’s concerns over paddling as unfounded, saying the practice has produced no parental complaints and no evidence of abuse. To the contrary, they say, corporal punishment is critical part of how the school turns out so many successful young men. Aymond turned over consultant Monica Applewhite’s 2010 report during a three-hour closed door session Thursday with representatives of the St. Augustine community. “This document gives evidence that my initial public statements about injuries from paddling and parental complaints were based on the above-mentioned written report,” Aymond said in a statement Friday. The St. Augustine board released a separate statement Friday saying it was carefully going over Applewhite’s report. Troy Henry, a businessman who heads St. Augustine’s board, said the report contained information new to them, even though Applewhite sat as Aymond’s representative on an internal St. Augustine committee that evaluated corporal punishment last year. Applewhite is a national “safe environment” consultant based in Austin who frequently works for Catholic institutions. Parts of her report to the archbishop “are not consistent” with the findings of the disciplinary review committee on which she sat, Henry said. It was not immediately clear why that may be. In his statement, Aymond said that months ago he had shared Applewhite’s findings with the Josephites, the religious order that owns St. Augustine, as well as an internal committee that reviewed disciplinary procedures at the school last year. In addition, Applewhite participated in that review as Aymond’s representative. Reached later Friday, Aymond declined to elaborate, but said Applewhite’s report to him was “substantially” the same as the information she gave to St. Augustine during her work with them, presumably including reports of injury or parental complaints. Aymond’s office said it would not make the Applewhite report public because school representatives asked him to keep it confidential. Applewhite was unavailable for comment. At the conclusion of the Thursday meeting, both groups pledged to keep talking, keeping the best interests of St. Augustine foremost. As a measure of importance of St. Augustine in the community, those talks were facilitated by U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond and Liberty Bank President Alden McDonald. Neither are alumni, but they said they wanted to get involved to secure the best outcome for the legendary high school’s future. In his statement, Aymond apologized for remarks in a video blog in late February, in which he seemed to link the practice of paddling at St. Augustine with a separate discussion of how creating a climate of violence spills over into street crime. “I should not have put those two topics in the same blog. I apologize for doing so, and I deeply regret the misunderstanding and hurt it has caused,” he said. He said that part of the offending blog has been taken off the archdiocesan website. While not backing off his concerns about paddling, Aymond said he wanted to remain in conversation with school supporters about corporal punishment. St. Augustine “has been, and continues to be, a bright light in the city of New Orleans and as a Catholic school,” the archbishop said. “We must find a way to heal the wounds this division has caused.” He said he hoped to go to the high school soon to celebrate Mass with the students, faculty and administrators. After becoming archbishop in 2009, Aymond said he found out that St. Augustine used corporal punishment, in violation of archdiocesan policy. Late that year Aymond asked Applewhite to investigate and report back to him. Aymond has said he wants paddling stopped as a matter of good educational practice and in conformance with the Catholic identity of the school. As his concerns reached the school, St. Augustine convened a discipline review committee, chaired by attorney Daniel Davillier, to consult parents, administrators, alumni and students in a broad review of the application of paddling at the school. That committee last year recommended the continuation of occasional paddling for minor offenses -- part of what was then a 59-year St. Aug tradition -- with some new limitations. The 2010-11 school year was about to begin, with paddling in place, when the Josephites ordered a halt to the practice, setting off widespread calls by parents, alumni and others to bring it back. St. Augustine the Rev. John Raphael, its president, has said that with more limited disciplinary options including suspensions -- and perhaps even expulsions -- are higher this year than they would have been. He and others also have argued that the practice has produced no evidence of abuse or parental dissatisfaction. Moreover, they have bristled at Aymond’s concerns as disrespectful of the African-American community’s right to discipline its children according to its own norms.