Prefects’ use and abuse of authority

Gerva D’Olbert in his book Chastisement Across The Ages (The Fortune Press, 1956) says in the English public schools (i.e. elite, mostly boarding, schools) the prefect system was tied up with corporal punishment. This system has many disadvantages and advantages. In many cases it does actually serve to train the elder lads in authority, and the younger (and even the elder were young once) in obedience, that essential prerequisite for authority itself. It is said that on such foundations the British Empire was built.

D’Olbert says it is undeniable that, with adolescents, the use and abuse of authority are often hard to distinguish: and it is on this fact that the opponents of the prefectorial system base their strongest plea.

They point to cases of exorbitant bullying or thrashing on the part of prefects, of drunken prefects who camouflage their own crimes by beating their fags, and so forth; but it must be remembered that these cases are frankly exceptions, and also that little boys often have no respect for any remedy but the rod.

We can admit at once that the best type of prefect will keep order spontaneously by his popularity, manly bearing, and tolerant sympathy for the smaller lads: for this reason it is usually wise to appoint an athlete as head-prefect; but in the last resort (and anyone who deals with the mischievous young knows that last resorts are always recurring), the rod must be ready.

Its very presence may deter, especially if it is to be wielded by the strong athletic arm of the Captain of the First Fifteen. Boys even respect this kind of strength, though we cannot ignore the counter-argument that such a cult of strength may lead them in turn to bully boys junior to themselves. Indeed, many lads have confessed that the only consolation during the first years when fagging and beating seemed incessant, was the hope of attaining the prefecture themselves and wreaking a vicarious vengeance.

This is indeed a vicious circle; and yet a virtuous one also, in certain senses and under certain conditions. For the laws of society must be obeyed, and expiation must be realised as inevitable. And there are indeed already in existence many measures to control the possible abuse of prefectorial power.

For one thing, it is illegal to inflict more than a fixed number of strokes (usually six, with possible extras for, resisting punishment, or for “padding” the pants to evade pain); for another, all punishments must take place on the clothed person – only the Headmaster can birch, and in public, on the naked posteriors; yet another precaution is that, in most schools the victim has a right of appeal to the Head; still more efficacious, perhaps, is the proviso that all inflictions must be administered in the presence of the assembled prefectorial board, so that abuse of power by an individual prefect is rendered less likely.

And the youngster is allowed to speak in his own defence, though, as one “head of his house” naively confided to me, “the sentence of a thrashing was always decided on even before the boy opens his lips.” Moreover, it is easy, even while the boy is speaking, to convict him to a still greater number of strokes for “impertinence” or “cheek.”

Thus the precautions are not water-tight; in this they are like life itself. Indeed, to a sensitive youngster life seems, in his first years at a public school nothing but a succession of blows and wheals. If, for instance, he appeals to the Headmaster, he may escape an immediate beating, but the prefects will certainly lie in wait to wreak vengeance on his “impertinence” at the first opportunity and he surely cannot go on appealing to the Head – who would merely fly into a passion and beat the lad himself.

Similarly, the other precautions can all be circumvented by prefectorial devices: for instance, a beating officially limited to six strokes can be extended on all sorts of pretexts, such as the well-known cachet of “impertinence.” As regards the ban on beating on the bare flesh, prefects detailed to punish slackers at games can easily evade this ban by punishing in the changing-rooms, where (at most) the victim will be arrayed in the thinnest of shorts. Sometimes, indeed the prefect will take this fact into account and inflict a slightly lesser total of stripes; but such forbearance is rare.

Even the principal Precaution – that of the infliction of all whackings in the public presence of the prefects’ assembly – can be circumvented with hardly any difficulty. The prefects themselves are unlikely to take action against one of their number, especially as he in his turn may know some of their own secrets; the result of this tacit mutual blackmail is that the fag or other lad, is rendered practically defenceless.

Picture credits: CP Services, London, Alan Lawrence

 

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