The Nixa school board unanimously voted Thursday night to ban corporal punishment in the district's schools, Superintendent Stephen Kleinsmith said. Kleinsmith cautioned that school officials weren't casting judgement on how parents punish their children at home, saying "that is their right."

But a wealth of scientific and educational research "shows without a shadow of doubt that this is an inappropriate practice of discipline for a public school to use," Kleinsmith said.

"We know better and so we should do better," he said.

There were six paddlings in Nixa schools last year, Kleinsmith said.