Keegan99 said:
At St. Thomas Episcopal in Houston in the 80s, every teacher had a paddle in their desk, ready for use right there in the classroom.
One had a paddle that was plexiglass with holes drilled in it. She even had it decorated.
My 6th grade English teacher, Mrs. Carver (RIP), had the "Board of Education" prominently displayed at the front of the room. It had about a 1" diameter hole in it toward the end.
She had to leave the room for some reason, and about 10 of us boys decided we were going to play football in the middle of the room (desks were on either side, middle was open). We used an encyclopedia for a football...anyway, we're untangling from a pileup (yes, we were tackling each other on a tile floor) when she comes back in. Oops.
She marched us all outside and said "last one in line gets two licks"...one kid didn't hear her, so we all ran in front of him.
That was the last paddling I got at school, 40 years ago now, and I will say that the specter of a potential butt-whooping was enough to keep pretty much all of us in line, sort of like the MAD doctrine on a much smaller scale..."I might make the teacher's life miserable by misbehaving, but the teacher can also return the favor."