Red tape saves school-bus hooligans from canings

Schoolchildren in Yorkshire cannot be caned for rowdyism on buses such as tearing and cutting of seats, use of obscene language, the placing of a firework under the driver’s seat and leaning out of windows. This is because regulations don’t allow headmasters to rely on information that reaches them from outside sources, according to this 1952 report.

You might remember the people on the Isle of Man had other ideas on this subject (See here).

‘No caning ruling’

Rowdyism in school buses

Children cannot be caned for rowdyism and misdemeanours in school buses, the Claro Divisional Education Executive have been told by the West Riding County Council.

At the Executive’s meeting at Harrogate yesterday, Mr. A. A. Ingham, Education Officer, said the reply had been received in answer to a legal question about corporal punishment after recent incidents of rowdyism in school buses in the area.

At the last meeting of the Executive, it was stated that alleged incidents in school buses without conductors or supervisors included the tearing and cutting of seats, use of obscene language, the placing of a firework under the driver’s seat and children leaning out of windows. Some members advocated corporal punishment, and the matter was adjourned for further consideration.

The County Council reply stated that regulations laid down that children cannot be caned on information reaching headmasters from outside sources.

Fair play appeal

Yesterday, the Executive decided that the matter be further considered by the Finance and General Purposes Committee.

Members agreed that only proper supervision would prevent any repetition.

Colonel S. Rhodes suggested an appeal to the child’s sense of fair play, and said that added instruction in the schools in good citizenship might ease the problem.

The Rev H. Champion, Vicar of Ramsgill and Middlesmoor, commented: “I think we should be very sympathetic towards misbehaving children of today. The whole world is misbehaving itself.

“Children today have been brought up at a time when every stable foundation of citizenship appears to them to be crumbling. We have had two world wars in which justifiably from our point of view men have been taught to kill one another. This has been a disturbing influence on the lives of our children.

“We should not be surprised at indiscipline in children because it is something for which indirectly we are responsible.”

As published in the Yorkshire Post, 18 January 1952.

Picture credit: The Magnet

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