FutureSpank

From: [email protected] (Millard)



In the year 2004, Congress, in frustration with the explosion of violent behavior on the part of children, passed the Disciplinary Entitlment Act. In short, it gave the states the right to allow corporal punishment of any child, up to the age of 18, without fear of lawsuits.  Most states passed this power down to local governments and school districts.  By the year 2010, General Electric had designed, and sold 35,000 "Discipline 2000" machines. These machines were automated spankers.  At first, only city governments had them.  Then, school districts started ordering them.  It was quite a financial boost for GE!

The workings of the machine were both ingenious, and quite effecient.  All children were issued Social Security cards with a magnetic strip on them.  A child who was to be disciplined swiped the card through a slot, similar to an ATM machine.  The child then entered a number (from 1-5), entered the machine, and followed the verbal instructions given by the machine.

Once inside, the machine instructed the child to remove all clothing below the waist, except for shoes and socks.  The child then was instructed to step onto the yellow footprints in the floor.  They were told to put their arms out straight in front of themselves.  The machine then weighed, and measured them.  The child was then instructed to grab ahold of the yellow rings above their head.  The rings then gently locked over their wrists, as similar rings in the floor locked over their ankles.  They were then stretched, and gently bent forward over a padded metal "horse" which adjusted them forward until their bottom was at the perfect position for discipline.

A child would be awarded a "1", "2", "3", "4", or "5" by the parent, teacher, court official, or police officer who had determined they needed to be punished.  A "1" consisted of a number of swats equal to their age.  "2" was twice their age etc, until five times their age was reached at "5".

The machine could use any of 3 instruments: either a lexan clear paddle, which was 18" by 3" at its' working end, and contained 13 quarter inch holes; a black heavy rubber tawse which was 24" long by 2 and 1/2 inches wide, and whose last 10 inches were made up of two "fingers"; or a lexan cane which was 3/8" thick, by 32" long.  The choice of instrument was entirely done at random, by the machine.  Each instrument had its' merits, but generally, children "preferred" them in the order given, ie: paddle/strap/cane.

The child did not know what instrument the machine had chosen until they were positioned for punishment.  For the paddle, they were bent over at a 90 degree angle.  For the strap, they were laid out flat, and for the cane, they were bent over at a 45 degree angle, and then the machine moved their legs forward into a sort of "jacknife" position.

Just prior to the punishment beginning, a large monitor lit up in front of the child, showing a close up of their bottom, with the number of strokes hi-lited in the upper left hand corner.  As each stroke was given, the number would drop by one.  This tape was available for parents, or anyone who had ordered the punishent.

The room was entirely soundproof.  Larger cities had set up buildings with up to 10 machines in each one.  Other than a maintenance person, who was there for an emergency, and to clean up any "spills", the machines ran themselves, and were quite cost effecient.

Stay tuned for more FutureSpank articles.


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