"Last year, 4,326 city teachers were accused of corporal punishment - 200 more than the year before, Board of Education records show.Outpacing the rise in complaints was a 36% jump in the number of charges substantiated by principals or Board of Education investigators.A total of 1,514 cases were substantiated - meaning some evidence was found to support the charge - last year. That's 400 more than in 2000" Daily News January 29, 2002.

Let's convert this statement into a chart form :

Years
2000
2001
Number of cases
4126
4326
Number of "substantiated" cases
1114
1514

The numbers are in conflict with New York State's statistics :

3020-a Decisions statewide
Year (1995-2005)
95
96
97
98
99
00
01
02
03
04
05
Total
Terminate
8
8
10
8
10
15
13
22
34
22
20
170
Unpaid Suspension
9
5
16
11
14
19
24
21
28
32
34
213
Fine
2
3
5
5
5
4
5
5
11
11
17
73
Reprimand
0
1
3
1
0
5
7
3
2
3
3
28
Acquit
3
4
8
3
5
11
17
16
10
4
4
85
Other
0
0
0
1
0
0
4
0
1
3
2
11
Total
22
21
42
29
34
54
70
67
86
75
80
580
Source : New York State School Boards Association

Statewide, 580 substantiated cases -- all categories, including corporal punishment-- went to the 3020-a proceedings.
Where have the DOE's substantiated cases gone ? If they existed at all, they shoud have been prosecuted in 2001 and later. Now, statistics for 2001, 2002,2003,2004,and 2005 do not reflect this "child abuse" epidemic : 54 + 70 + 67 + 86 + 75+ 80 = 432
substantiated cases -- all categories -- prosecuted statewide. Even if we take into account the fact that the DOE has certainly terminated the majority because they were not tenured (which would exclude them from the above statistics) , the Daily News "substantiated" numbers remain dubious, to say the least.

"Corporal punishment" has become a political tool : 1) it is used to get teachers in line; 2) the majority of suspended teachers being over 40 and tenured who worked for twenty years or more, we strongly believe that the DOE wants to replace them, at lower cost, by new teachers who are more malleable, given their non-tenured status.Senior teachers constitute 80% of the infamous pool of ATR (permanent substitutes). Belatedly, the UFT took a legal action in their behalf -- palpable effects of our lawsuit against both the DOE and UFT.