by Lisa Grant
It was one of those well-publicised incidents that made every red-blooded male in the country run to get his daily newspaper every morning to read all the juicy details. And now there was the hearing, which made great copy.
It had hit the headlines in all the tabloids, and suddenly Jim Brown, Headmaster of St Andrew's Comprehensive, Reading was a national hero to a nation sick and tired of ineffectual justice and damaging over-zealous political correctness. Faced with an outbreak of shoplifting from various establishments within the local shopping mall and complaints from the managers that pupils from his school were thought to be responsible, Jim Brown had gained access to their CCTV security camera footage and had vigilantly tracked down the culprits. He soon discovered that they were indeed from his school, but was shocked to find that they were in fact a gang of four upper sixth form girls who had 'bunked off' lessons to make their illicit raids.
Thankfully, the thefts had been fairly minor - perfumes, lipsticks, chocolate, and the like - so, upon return of some goods and the girls paying for the remainder, all the shops concerned had agreed not to bring formal charges and prosecute. The police had not even been called, so criminal charges were avoided. However, 45-year-old Jim Brown had decided that a short sharp shock was definitely in order for the culprits. He made the swift and much-applauded bold decision to call all the girls together, take away their prefect badges and privileges, and give each of them a well-earned dose of the cane.
On Thursday, September 27th at 3.30 pm three of the four girls were indeed caned, but the fourth, 18-year-old Corinne Wright, who was in point of fact the ringleader of the group, refused to take her painful medicine, walked out of the headmaster's office and went home, completely unpunished.
A dilemma then of course reared its ugly head. Jim Brown offered the girl's parents a choice, as they had supported her in her refusal to accept corporal punishment. Either she was to be expelled forthwith, or she could return to school, providing she accepted the punishment already meted out to her partners in crime. Her parents were incensed. They said he couldn't expel their daughter as it would ruin her 'A' level chances, and that she had every right to an education the same as every other pupil, but Corinne still steadfastly refused to be caned.
Of course this situation very quickly mushroomed out of control. The national press got wind of the story, making Corinne feel like a latter-day martyr, the Local Education Authority became involved, and the whole thing went to and fro endlessly. Having made no progress with the parents whatsoever, the L.E.A. decided to call an independent hearing to resolve the messy matter. By this time the girl had already been absent from school for four weeks, so something simply had to be done. The hearing was to be presided over by Sir Horace Forsythe J.P., Chairman of the local magistrates, and it was agreed that his decision, as arbitrator, was to be final.
On the first morning of the hearing, Jim Brown himself was asked to take the stand. He looked pale and drawn. The whole unpleasant business had taken a lot out of him, but he certainly didn't look repentant. He was asked to give his account of events, which he gave in a subdued, yet clear voice. The press printed every syllable, with glee.
"On Wednesday, September 27th I was presented with conclusive proof, in the form of security camera footage, of the identity of four prefects who had been stealing from local shops, so I sent for them. The Upper Sixth form girls reported to my office and eventually confessed to their crimes. Well they did when I showed them the tapes. It was undeniable then. The girls agreed to return anything that was still in pristine condition, and pay for anything that was unreturnable. I informed them that fortunately they were not to be prosecuted, saving them from the ignominy of an embarrassing court case and a criminal record, but this meant that they must be punished by the school. Their prefect badges and privileges were stripped away, and I told them they would be caned the following day..."
"Do you often cane girls, Mr Brown?" asked Mr Williams, a black-robed and bewigged lawyer who was representing Corinne Wright's interests at the hearing.
"No..." murmured the Headmaster, clearing his throat.
"But you have caned girls before I take it?"
"Yes... on rare occasions it has been known..."
"The school punishment register, which I'd like to submit as Exhibit 'A', m'lud, shows that you caned a girl last term... and several boys..."
"Yes... I'm sure that is correct... I don't recall in detail..."
"So you resort to corporal punishment quite frequently then, Mr Brown?"
"No... the school has over two thousand pupils - both boys and girls. Corporal punishment is rarely used, and only for the most serious breaches of school discipline. The girl last term assaulted a teacher..."
"Ah, so you do recall her..." Williams crowed with a self-satisfied smirk.
"Tell us about the following day, Mr Brown, the day after you sentenced the girls to the cane..." interrupted Sir Horace, testily.
"Well, on the Thursday, after school, the four girls returned to my office, as instructed. Each in turn was then caned, according to the local education authority rules, in the presence of Miss Templeton, my Deputy Headmistress. Until of course it came to Corinne Wright's turn that is."
"She was last?"
"Yes. I knew her of old, and I was aware that she was very much the ringleader of this little gang. She's a bad influence on the others but, like many bullying leaders, she's ultimately a coward. After her friends had taken their punishment, she lost her nerve and refused to cooperate. She became abusive, so I sent her home and told her to return to school when she was ready to take her punishment, and not before."
"Had she shown any signs of refusing the punishment on the Wednesday?" the J.P. enquired, making notes in a ledger.
"All four girls questioned the sentence, yes, and were visibly upset by it, but when I told them that their only alternative was to be expelled from the school, they fell silent. None of them actually refused."
"Tell us about the 'sentence', Mr Brown," Williams continued with his questioning.
"Pardon?"
"How many strokes of the cane did you decide they should receive?"
"Six..."
"Of the best?"
"That is a hackneyed old cliché, which I prefer not to use."
"But they were to be severe strokes?"
"Not severe, but appropriate to the seriousness of the misdemeanour."
"Across the palms of their hands, Mr Brown?"
"Er, no... I wouldn't give that many hard strokes on a pupil's hands, the bone structure is somewhat delicate."
A murmur ran round the large hall where the hearing was held, which stopped Jim Brown mid-flow.
"Hard strokes, Mr Brown?! So you clearly intended to do damage."
"I object, m'lud!" stormed Mr Foley, who was representing Jim Brown and the school.
"Yes, Mr Williams - confine yourself to questions and not sensationalist suppositions, if you please," growled Sir Horace, glaring over his half-glasses.
"I'm sorry, m'lud. So, Mr Brown, you caned three eighteen-year-old girls on... their bottoms?" Williams raised a shocked eyebrow, and deliberately emphasised the emotive word for dramatic effect.
"Yes."
"On the bare bottom?"
"Of course not!" snapped Jim Brown curtly.
"What then? Through thick skirts perhaps? Underskirts, petticoats? Tights?"
"One layer of clothing, as stipulated by..."
"Bring in Exhibit 'B' please!" interrupted Williams.
A middle-aged, overweight clerk reached down and picked something up from behind his desk. It rattled on the wooden floor as he fumbled for it. It was a crook handled school cane, about three feet in length, thicker than a pencil, un-ridged and smooth along its length and a pale yellowy brown in colour. The clerk looked quite hot and bothered as Mr Williams took the cane from him.
"Is this the cane you used to beat the girls, Mr Brown?"
"It could well be. It looks very like it."
Williams flexed the supple cane between his hands and swished it viciously through the air, making a meal of this high drama. "So you beat three eighteen-year-old girls - mature young women - across the seat of their thin underwear six times with this?"
"Yes, that's right... although I wouldn't say 'beat'."
"And Corinne Wright watched you do this?"
"No. She was in the next room - my secretary's office. The girls were summoned one at a time into my office to be caned."
"And Miss Wright refused to come in to be beaten?"
"No. She came into the office when she was summoned, but refused to be punished. She became abusive, and so I gave her some time to calm down. But she still refused to be caned, so I sent her home. There was nothing else I could do. Then I wrote to her parents."
"Saying what exactly?"
"Stating the facts. I detailed her misdemeanours and told them that she could not return to the school unless she accepted her punishment."
"And what was their reaction to that?"
"Her father phoned me. He was very reasonable about it, but said his daughter still refused to accept corporal punishment. He said that he and his wife were opposed to its use anyway, but she was eighteen, so she was old enough to make her own decisions on such matters, and he refused to intervene. He asked me to reconsider my position, but I told him that I could not do that as three of the girls had already been punished and that would have been unfair on them. An hour later, Mrs Wright phoned and begged me to take her daughter back into the school as her university place would be jeopardised if she missed this critical stage of her 'A' level course, or had the disruption of finding a new school."
"And?"
"Well, I agreed with her about the disruption to her studies, and I said that Corinne was very welcome to return to the Upper Sixth the very next day, providing she agreed to take her punishment after school, the same as the other girls. Mrs Wright then became quite heated and unreasonable, so I hung up. I haven't spoken to either parent since that day."
"And what of the other three girls?"
"The slate is clean as far as I am concerned. It was a most unfortunate incident, but they are all now back at their studies, working as normal."
"No, Mr Brown, I mean after their six 'hard' strokes of the cane. In your secretary's office."
"Oh I see. Well I called them back into my office. They had seen Miss Wright leave."
"Were they crying?"
"I fail to see what diff..."
"Were they crying?" insisted Williams.
"I don't recall... errmm, yes, I think they probably had been. I told them that the matter was officially closed now for them and I hoped that they had learned their lesson. I explained to them about Miss Wright's situation, as I didn't want them to think that she had escaped punishment. Then I filled in the Punishment Register, which is a requirement of the L.E.A. rules on corporal punishment, and gave them a few moments to compose themselves. After that I dismissed them."
"A few moments to compose themselves?"
"To dry their eyes and so on."
"So they were still crying. They were in quite a state by the sounds of things, Mr Brown!"
"They had just been caned! It wasn't supposed to be a tea-party!"
There was a little chuckle from the gathering of journalists and spectators.
"What was their reaction to Corinne's refusal to be punished?"
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