We need to isolate abusive behaviors wherever they exist and insist that people and institutions find alternative solutions. Failing at this, the lust for violence may do to us what no outside enemy has succeeded in doing. It may tear us apart at the seams. It perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry.
Bruises are common.
Broken bones are not unusual. Children's deaths have occurred in the U.S. due to school corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is used much more often on poor children, minorities, children with disabilities, and boys. Schools are the only institutions in America in which striking another person is legally sanctioned. It is not allowed in prisons, in the military or in mental hospitals.