Corpun file 17791

ktbs.com (KTBS3-TV), Shreveport, Louisiana, 28 June 2006

Principal cleared in paddling complaint

A south Arkansas principal who had permission from a parent to impose corporal punishment on her son, has been acquitted of battery charges related to a paddling at school.

Steven Britton, the principal at Spring Hill High School in Hempstead County, was arrested this past April after the mother of a 13-year-old student filed a criminal complaint after her son was paddled.

Investigators said the student had been sent to Britton's office for disrupting class. Britton, 53, had permission from the student's mother to paddle him -- but the mother filed charges after the paddling, claiming her child had bruises.

Britton's case was heard before a judge in Hempstead County Court in Hope Wednesday morning and he was cleared.

Copyright © 2006
ABC & KTBS 3 All Rights Reserved.