Ingraham V. Wright Case Essay

Ingraham v. Wright was a case where the Supreme Court had ruled (5-4 vote), on April 19, 1977, that corporal punishment in public schools did not violate constitutional rights. The case was brought up into court when an eighth grade student of a public junior high school in Florida, James Ingraham, who was paddled in 1970 by the principal Willie J. Wright and was also restrained by the assistant principal and the principal’s assistant (Lemmie Deliford, Solomon Barnes). James was hit by the paddle more than 20 times and required medical attention, later on a complaint was filed in 1971, other than Ingraham and a student named Roosevelt Andrews, another student has also been paddled. The complaint claims that the use of corporal punishment goes against the 8th Amendment, stating that it is a violation on the ban of ‘cruel and unusual punishments’, and the 14th Amendment which requires prior notice and an opportunity to be heard.
The District Court had dismissed the complaint, but the then the …show more content…
The teacher and the principal claim that they had only hit him 5 times, though James Ingraham claims it to be over 20. Now after looking at the case and the eighth amendment, the supreme court had came to the decision that the case was constitutional because the eighth amendment protects people that are convicted of crimes, not children during school. The parents' of Ingraham did have the right to sue the school for the injuries Ingraham had, what parent does not have the right to do so? Now in present day a teacher may not beat a student for not obeying their orders, but there is many different ways of punishments. So, the Ingraham vs Wright case would not be the same if it were to take place today. But it states that the eighth amendment protects people convicted of crime, not a student with disciplinary problems in