*****
I went to DoD schools most of my life, so paddling was pretty much unheard of to me until we moved to Georgia for my senior year.
I got sent to the vice principal's office for something and he told me I was going to be paddled. Oh really? I was almost 18 years old, so I told him that wasn't going to happen and he told me that if I didn't submit, he was going to call my father. I told him to go right on ahead and do that. I'll take an ass whipping from my father but there was no way in hell I was going to let him paddle me.
He called my dad. He showed up about an hour later, listened to both of us, then told the vice principal, "There he is. If you think you can get away with it, go for it."
I copped a week's suspension instead.
Your father sounds like my father, rest his soul....
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 1950's my family lived in Florida. I was enrolled in an elementary school that resembled Cool Hand Luke's compound where the principal has a leather razor strop hanging behind his desk in his office. Every guy was invited to hear the principal's description of why it was there. I don't remember anyone ever feeling the sting.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in 7th grade, I had a principal that I frustrated the hell out of. I was sucker punched by a bully girl and knocked back a few rows of chairs, and even though I knew I wasn't supposed to hit girls, I knocked her on her ass and busted out a tooth. Her friends jumped me and I threw them around too, creating quite the scene. Well, this Principal was fresh out of the hospital after having open heart surgery, and I knew I was pissing him off with my defence that I wasn't the aggressor (Like hitting girls huh boy?). He took his hole filled whacking board and reached way back to smack my ass, he was so pissed that we way over reached and tore the staples out of his chest. Red blood blossomed on his nice white dress shirt, and he collapsed. I laughed at him, called him a pussy and a fool, deserving what he got, and walked out of his office back to class to his screaming at me. He made such a fuss, wailing on the ground bleeding like crazy, that the secretary called for help. A District employee witnessed all of the aftermath, and forbade them from seeking retribution. I was suspended for a day or three, and every time the Principal saw me the rest of the time in his school, I would chuckle. He totally had it out for me then, but my mom raised a stink about it, and he wasn't allowed to corporal punish me anymore. That was my first realization that I didn't have to put up with abusive bullshit anymore, and could stand my ground if I was in the right. Life lesson learned.
ReplyDeleteI hope he remembers me still, if he's still alive that is...
Hosedragger
There was a high skool science teacher 50-odd years ago in Shitland Switch, Missouri found out he wasn't gonna paddle me either. Then a couple years later, he found out he wasn't gonna get away with messing with high skool girls either and got in more trouble than he could politic himself out of, the schmuck.
DeleteBy the way, WC, I miss your dad and Charlie GD-it both, and I never met either one of them. Lives well lived, you betcha.
This not supposed to hit girls is bullshit, if they hit first..... Act like a man and I'll treat you like a man.....
DeleteJD
In Jackson MS back in the mid-60s it was restricted to Jr HS (7th-9th Grades). Got it twice by forgetting to take my gym clothes home to be washed. But, it was epidemic for all grades bove the 3rd in the parallel black system.
ReplyDeleteI was born in the late 50s. I am from California and we had paddling for certain issues in elementary school. In HS we did not. We were removed from the HS and sent to another HS in our district. If we were sent to all 3 and still had a problem the police picked you up and sent you to the 4 school setup as a HS with police going down the halls and the classes. All schools were fenced and locked down.
ReplyDeleteIn Ulysses schools that was refered to as the Board of Education. Most of us took the paddle so our Fathers would not be notified.
ReplyDeleteThe Board of Education was definitely in play when I was in school.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was the principal. He would plain his paddles really thin. After about 4 or 5 links it would shatter. Quite intimidating.
They called him "Hitler", which made me "Little Hitler". Yes, I caught a lot of shit
Got my ass busted more than once up until the eight grade. Most of it deserved. After that it was suspension.
ReplyDeleteAwesome. Yeah, I got paddled in the 7th grade, but if they had wanted to do that to me when I was 18? I'm there with you, man. That probably would not have worked, for all parties concerned.
ReplyDeleteMy dad's rule was, for everyone at school was doubled at home. I fear my 5ft mom over my dad, she also had network of neighborhood moms to spy on my actions.
ReplyDeleteI remember the day the school annouced that that was the last day of corporal punishment. The next morning was a near riot that took sheriffs deputies to quell...this was a public junior high school....seventh and eighth grade! I was mad having had two "swats" a week prior for comments to another student about his families lineage. That was in the late 80s or in 1990 in Del Valle, TX. A year or two before Bergstrom Air Force Base got "BRAC'ed".
ReplyDeleteWe had the strap up until Grade Three or Four. There was one hanging by the door to each classroom, and you had to take it to the Principal's Office to have it administered to you. The only way out is if you had a cut in your hand (they would strap the one you didn't write with,) so the solution was to pull out a hair, lick your hand and stick the hair to your hand. Usually after the first or second strike, the blood would begin to show and you never had the total (five to ten, depending on your dipshit level that sent you there.)
ReplyDeleteThe only teachers I feared was the Nuns. Ever see a 5' Nun lift a 10 year old off the ground by his hair and shake him enough to rip out a section and throw it on the ground. That was Sister Mary Bertram. She once slapped a kid so hard his glasses flew to the blackboard and exploded. I got a big red "F" in religion from her. The Monsignor handed out the report cards and couldn't say anything as all my other grades were A's. My parents moved the lot of us out the city to the Connecticut suburbs. Life was better there.
ReplyDeleteSpin Drift
Catholic nuns were big on rulers and yardsticks. We'd get a wack for talking on the bus or some minor infraction. No big deal. I do remember Sister Morha chasing a kid who was a little slow in the head, shouting, " I am going to box your ears you brazen pup!" I don't remember her catching him though.
DeleteWhen I became a Public ( no longer going to Catholic school) the only corporal punishment came from gym teachers who used a yellow wiffle ball bat on the butt or back of the legs. The Catholic School boys ended up sparring with a brother when they misbehaved. I think we got off lighter with the gym teachers from the sound of it.
Although I believe it was legal at the time I don't remember teachers or the principal padding students, mostly women, expect for my industrial arts and ag teachers... Both middle aged men that didn't take any shit, it usually went along the lines of taking the paddle or get your dad to come to school for a sit down with him.... 99% of the time we took the paddle...
ReplyDeleteJD
Jeez, I had no idea that corporal punishment in the classroom was EVER a thing. It certainly wasn't in my hometown on Long Island in the 60s and 70s when I was a kid. Never even heard of any such treatment.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the 60's. I don't recall swats except in middle school (aka junior high, grades 7-9) Nobody wanted swats, let alone multiple. You'd have to misbehave pretty well to get that, it was a last resort method. I got 1 a couple of times. And it was the gym teachers that did that, you'd be sent down to them. There were stories that would circulate of previous notable swats and the paddles they used, probably all BS to keep the fear factor high.
ReplyDeleteOnce in HS punishment became detentions and suspensions. I used to rack up detentions, never go, then when I wanted a day off I'd turn myself in the attendance counselor and he'd offer me a suspension to zero my account out. I knew when the notice would be coming so I'd intercept the mailman and pocket the notice on my way into the house. Then I had a free day off, as a "punishment" for cutting classes. I'm the reason suspensions are now served in school.
In 5th grade I was subjected to an hours long torture session by the principal that only ended when I escaped. My backside was literally black and purple from my lower back almost to my knees. I believe it's the reason I have problems with my lower back and hips to this day.
ReplyDeleteWhen I showed it to my mother she just said I deserved it. I've never known why it was done or what my mother was told. My father was in Vietnam at the time.
After that day I didn't allow anyone at school to touch me. Threats of paddling were met with death threats. I wasn't bluffing.
I grew up in the late 70's in rural Maryland. My dad was an elem. school principal. He kept a collection of paddles on the credenza behind his desk. He would always call the parents first and offer a suspension instead of paddling. Only once did the parent choose suspension.
ReplyDeleteMy 7th grade science teacher also had the "Board of Education". Kept everyone in line. Don't remember anyone being on the receiving end.
ReplyDeleteA lot of this changed in the early '60's.
Delete8th grade American History teacher named Vincent made sure that eventually, everybody in the class got at least one whack. Good prep work for becoming a fraternity pledge in '64.
I had a PE teacher come up behind me and pinch my shoulder muscle hard for goofing off in a library study hall. I rebelled. I got up and walked right down to the Dean's office with him chasing after me trying to get me to calm down. Once in the Dean's office, I looked him in the eye and told him to never do that to me again. I meant it, too. First time I stood up to a teacher. I was really pissed. He ended up apologizing.
I graduated HS in 1970. Various kids got paddled every day of the week.
ReplyDeleteThen there was one little snot who was chronically truant. They caught him at home and took him to the principal's office, where The Man Himself and The Assistant Man started in grilling him. Finally, the Ass. Man. said, "Why do you even bother coming to school Jack?"
"You're the reason I come to school, Mister Hardluck. You're my idol. When I grow up, I want to be a great big zero, just like you."
That vice principal didn't follow through on his principles.
ReplyDeleteHar de har har.
DeleteI went to 5th grade at a tiny little school in Eastern Kentucky. One particular day the teacher had us go around the room taking turns reading paragraphs from a book. One of the characters in the book was named Sean, which I pronounced correctly as “Shawn.” The teacher corrected me and told me to pronounce it as “Seen.” I refused multiple times (I was right and I knew it!) so he took me out in the hall for three licks from the paddle. “Say ‘Seen.’” Me: “It’s “Shawn.” Whack, whack, whack. “Say ‘Seen,” Whack, whack, whack. This went on for about 12 licks, when he finally became ashamed enough to stop. The next year, we moved to the next county over. A few years later I was working the concession stand at a high school basketball game against my old school and my old teacher was there. He recognized me and came up to apologize, telling me that he had asked his wife the night of the incident and she had informed him that I was, in fact, correct. Taught me a good lesson about trusting authority figures.
ReplyDeleteSort of related, but here goes any way. The year we hosted our first exchange student, she was Japanese and spoke almost no English. I told my step son, who was attending the same school, that he did not get on the bus unless Tomo-chan got on the bus. So, the first day, he was dutifully waiting by the bus. The Vice-principal observed and told him to get on the bus. After some debate, he assented and then snuck off after the VP turned around.
ReplyDeleteThe next morning, I called the VP and explained the situation. He said that he had promised to punish my step son and apologized for making him get on the bus. I explained that the boy had snuck off and found Tomo before he called me. The VP was incredulous that he had been disobeyed. I observed: I guess he is more afraid of me than he is of you. He laughed and said that he got it. The problem corrected itself after a couple of days.