At my school we had a chemistry teacher who would throw a board rubber (large heavy wooden thing) at any one who was talking. As he wasn't a good shot - more rugger than cricket - he would ususally hit an innocent bystander, ha I still laugh now. At other times he would pin people down and insert a rubber tube up there trowser leg before turning on a cylinder of CO2. On the plus side he did let us play with sodium and make explosives and I owe my career in chemistry to him.
We also had a psycopathaic maths teacher who would approach an offender and start to beat them up at their desk. If you laughed at one of your fellow pupils being beat up he would than turn on you with renewed violence. I still remember the suprisingly wooden sound when he cracked the heads of two unfortunates together. He was the same guy who whelled out our first computer (commodore pet anyone) and spoke in hushed tones. Only a select few were allowed within 10 feet of it.
That's a terrible indictment of a particular group of teachers. You often hear people complaining that the teacher/pupil balance is now too biased in favour of the pupil's rights and powers. The nutters Billy Bumbly describes have a lot to answer for in pushing the balance too far the other way.
It's also a shame when there have always been very good, dedicated and fair teachers out there. I went to a school reunion in the 1980s and met my former housemaster who had, by then, retired.
While he had caned me several times, it was always due to an explicit breach of the rules (and collection of black marks) and I didn't begrudge him for it. In fact, we were able to joke about it. He asked me if I had resented my occasional experience of corporal punishment. When I said "no", he laughed and said that surely I must not always have felt that way. After all, it was a particular habit of him as housemaster that after your backside had been caned with the requisite number of strokes and while you gingerly lifted yourself off the desk or gym horse that you were required to say "Thank you for my punishment, sir". Surely that was the last thing on a caned young man's mind? I replied it was just part of the ritual - I hadn't really thought about the words!
He also said he thought that its oncoming abolition removed flexibility from the classroom, especially with 16-18 year olds who were at that particularly exciting time of their lives acquiring new skills and interests (and hard work for A levels) all at the same time. "In his day", as he put it (but not mine), this attitude to life was upfront. At his school it had been common for miscreants to request that their punishments (eg lines, detention etc) be "caned off". In other words, if you were prepared to accept a caning from a master for breaking a school rule, the breach would be satisfied!
I replied I wasn't sure about that - you still needed detentions/lines for certain offenders!
I contrast this gent with the terrible men in Billy's school - I hope they would be chastened and remorseful to read stories like Billy's.
Originally posted by stafford: I went to school in the 70's and the cane was still in use. I only remember one or two boys being caned and that was on their hands not bottoms! Think a man caning a 15 year old girl on her backside is pervy, he should have suspended her instead.
Both the cane and the slipper were still in use in the 80s. I remember the slipper (for girls) being removed in my first year of secondary school (1983) and the cane (for boys) was a year or so later.
Personally, I don't think it does any harm. Perhaps if there was still some discipline you wouldn't have the hooligans you have today. Of course there needs to be boundaries - maybe a male staff member disciplining a male pupil and vice versa but I'm certainly not a fan of the nanny society we now have. Oh and no, I was never slippered, and neither was I an angel at school, but the very thought of the possibility was enough to know how far to push boundaries.
It was perfectly normal back in the '70s - of course then we didn't all go screeching off to the authorities squealing about perverts, but accepted the action for what it was; punishment for our misdeed/s.
I agree entirely with TAWright's post; such individuals were very much in the minority - as they are today - and it is quite wrong to equate those administering what were standard punishments of the time with any form of abuse; sexual or otherwise.
I was caned at school. At 16 I got in with the wrong crowd and started to skip school and get into trouble generally. My parents were informed and my mum had to take me to see the headmaster. She pleaded my case for me and even though she promised to keep me out of trouble in future it didn't stop him caning me there and then. I received two strokes one on each hand. I must say though I never got into any more trouble.
I went to school in the 70s and we had a deputy head who used to hit pupils over the head with a giant hymn book if they talked during assembly. It's a wonder nobody ever ended up in hospital with concussion - he used to clash it down dead hard. He'd be charged with multiple assault tody!
he should have suspended her instead. 
