This is not too surprising, but I am very sad to say so. About 6 comments so far have ben about what can get a rebbe put in jail, i..e, what secular society believes to be right or wrong. THIS HAS ZERO TO DO WITH OUR MORALITY. Dina dimalchusa dina does not mean we need to take on their ideologies! fakert, it is a terrible avera to take on goyishe attitudes or moral systems. The fact that in public school if a teacher even pats a kid on the shoulder he can get locked up, has zilch to do with us.
That being said, the reason why a rebbe noawadays should not hit a kid lechatchila, is because of the condition of people today, NOT because it’s wrong or assur or anything of the sort. It may be assur to thomasjefferson-ism, but nowhere will you find a torah source saying hitting kids is wrong inherently. The steipler obviously meant that psychologically, people are different today, and hiting does not produce the same positive effects it used to.
Now, the steipler was not, cv’s, influenced by secular ideology – this is how he saw the emes, however, to choose his shita, and ignore everyone else’s, due to your own secular brainwashing, is 100% krum.
Plus, look at all the scum that comes out of public school, and there, they dont hit kids – some off the derech kids may use it as an excuse, but in all fairness, I doubt many kids went off because a rebbe hit them in a way sanctioned by halacha(abuse is in a totally different universe, and the line is very clearly defined between the two, unless you’re a lefty ‘child’s rights’ am haaretz)