Birthday spankings are sometimes funny, but not when your principal gives you one!
When one elementary principal in Iowa, admitted to spanking kids for their birthday it didn’t go over well. Parents of course, complained. It seems that Terry Eisenbarth then submitted his resignation on Friday to the Mount Vernon Community Schools board.
He admitted to calling the children in on their birthdays and spanking them. He also sent the parents a letter along with a picture of the padded stick he used to do the spankings with.
The police did an investigation and found that no wrongdoing had occurred, but are continuing to look into the spankings. Terry will receive a $13,500 settlement and benefits until August.
Learn Something Fun: Some children receive birthday "spankings", which were originally based on superstition, but are now more a birthday prank or joke.
Hundreds of years ago, spankings were given for each year of the birthday child's life. Beyond that number, a child received another spanking to grow on, one to live on, one to eat on, one to be happy on, and yet another spanking to get married on.
At one time, it was considered back luck if the birthday celebrant was not spanked because it was believed to "soften up the body for the tomb."
Historians are unsure if the practice of swatting the birthday girl or boy was treated as a joke, as people view it today.
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