in my country, corporal punishment in school was abolished by law in 2004. i did elementary in the 80s, but the strap was not used that i can recall. kids were threatened with it, but i don’t think anyone got smacked. however, many people of my parents’ generation have told me that the strap was extremely common. my father in law used to get strapped for speaking german at school, among other things (saskatchewan, 50s / 60s).