My mother told me a story about how once my uncle was in school and the teacher told him to go out and cut a switch, which is just a thin stick good for whipping with. He cried, went out and got one, came back, and it turned out it was for someone else. This would have been the 60s or 70s maybe. My mom also mentioned that the typing (typewriter) teacher would smack fingers with a ruler when mistakes were made. This was a public school.

So yea, definitely a real thing that happened.