A Republican Senator has opposed a bill, which seeks to outlaw corporal punishment against disabled children, by quoting scripture.

The Oklahoma Senate Bill 364, which passed with 31 votes in favour, and 16 against last week, will prohibit the use of physical force against children with severe disabilities.

Since Ingraham v. Wright 1977, corporal punishment has been considered constitutional in America. However, the Oklahoma state Department of Education now prohibits the practice.

Tulsa Senator Dave Rader authored Bill 364 to codify the prohibition of force against children with disabilities protected by law. These include deafness, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, visual impairment, or orthopaedic injury.

One opponent was Republican Senator Shane Jett. He branded it “a top down socialist aligned ideological, unilateral divorce between parents’ ability to collaborate with their local schools to establish a disciplined regimen.”

He went on to call it a “violation of scripture,” citing Proverbs 22:15. Senator Jett read aloud: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”

Rader insisted the bill was not a “blanket ban” on how parents behave with their own children, but would protect children from harm whilst at school.

The measure will now move to the House for further consideration.