Corporal punishment is still common in American schools. Here's why it should be banned.

When news broke recently that a 6-year-old student was beaten with a wooden paddle by her school principal in Florida, many people likely had to double check that it wasn’t a story from the 1950s.

In a sickening video, shot by the student's mother on her mobile phone, the child, who is crying, is bent over a chair. Principal Melissa Carter of Central Elementary School in Clewiston then hits the girl three times with a large paddle. The state attorney’s office announced Friday that the principal did not commit a crime in beating the child.

Incidents like the Florida case, while seemingly relics of the past, still happen every day in classrooms across the country.