Editing Dunn, North Carolina (section)

===School paddling controversy===
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In December 1981, three students at Dunn High School were spanked with a wooden paddle by the assistant principal, Glenn Varney, as punishment for skipping school. [[School corporal punishment]] is legal in the state of North Carolina and was at the time permitted by the Harnett County school district.<ref name="ReferenceA">Paddle ban: Harnett County sees the light regarding corporal punishment in school, ''The Fayetteville Observer'', September 15, 2008</ref> The paddling led the parents of one of the students, 17-year-old Shelly Gaspersohn, to file a $55,000 lawsuit against Varney and the school the following May (''Gaspersohn v. Harnett County Board of Education''), claiming that the punishment was too severe. When Shelley reached the age of 18 in October, she took over as direct plaintiff. In December 1983, following one week of testimony and 15 minutes of deliberation, the jury found for the defendants, and the plaintiff's subsequent appeal was ultimately rejected two years later by the Supreme Court of North Carolina. The trial was chronicled by psychologist [[Irwin Hyman]], who was a witness for the plaintiff, in his 1990 book, ''Reading, Writing and the Hickory Stick''.<ref>Hyman, Irwin. ''Reading, Writing and the Hickory Stick: The Appalling Story of Physical and Psychological Abuse in American Schools'' (Lexington Books, 1990)</ref>

On October 17, 1984, Shelly Gaspersohn recounted her experience before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice, led by the subcommittee chairman, [[Arlen Specter]] of Pennsylvania. She stated that the county medical examiner who treated her for bruises and external hemorrhaging in the days after she was paddled filed a [[child abuse]] charge against Varney (a fact that was not allowed to be presented at trial), but that "there is no agency that can investigate a charge of child abuse against a public school teacher." Shelly's mother, Marlene Gaspersohn, also testified during the same session. When asked if she believed schools had the right to administer corporal punishment to students," Mrs. Gaspersohn replied, "I used to think that they had that right, but after experiencing the trauma that it can create, I have changed my mind completely about it."<ref>CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN THE SCHOOLS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1984 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, WASHINGTON, DC</ref>

Shelly Gaspersohn also called for the abolition of school paddling in a guest column for ''[[USA Today]]'', published October 23, 1984.<ref>"Don't Inflict My Pain on Others," By Shelly S. Gaspersohn, Guest columnist, ''USA Today'', October 23, 1984</ref>

In 2008 Harnett County changed its policy to ban corporal punishment in schools.<ref name="ReferenceA" />