Teacher in court after caning his entire class

A school teacher caned his entire class after no-one owned up to stamping his feet. He ended up in the local magistrates court ...

BOY BY BOY, THE CLASS WAS CANED

No-one owned up

Because no-one owned up to stamping his feet on the stairs, a schoolmaster caned all the boys in his class three or four times, Loughborough, Leicestershire, magistrates were told today [5 November 1954].

Gordon Kenneth Denniss, of Burton Street, Loughborough, a teacher at Garendon Secondary Modern School, pleaded not guilty of committing common assault by caning the 13-year-old boys.

Anthony George Jarram, of Parkland Drive, Loughborough, said on October 12, as a class was going upstairs, someone stamped his feet and Denniss said if they did not stop he would cane them.

“FOUR STROKES”

In the classroom he gave them a minute to own up, then caned the class. Then he gave them another minute to own up, and gave each boy a further stroke. This happened twice more.

Asked by the chairman, Mr. C. E. Huston, how many times he was caned, Jarram replied: “I had four strokes on the backside.”

Afterwards Denniss said if the culprit did not own up they would miss football.

“We did miss football and had to write passages out of the Bible instead,” said Jarram.

Russell David Cockrell, of Manor Drive, Loughborough, said the caning was “short and sharp and hard at the time,” but he did not complain to his parents.

Denniss said the school was new and the staff had been told to exercise great care and discipline on the stairs.

“OPEN DEFIANCE”

On the day in question there was organised stamping.

“I called out to them to cut it out and it stopped.

“But as the class was halted round a corner it started again. It was open defiance.

“Three boys said they knew who had done it but I did not want them to sneak. Then I spoke to them about dishonesty and being truthful and loyal to the community, but no-one owned up.

“I went round the class with the cane on the buttocks. It was not vicious and none of the boys was distressed.”

All the cases were dismissed, and the chairman said Denniss acted reasonably in the interests of discipline.

As published in Manchester Evening News, 5 November 1954.

Picture credit: Damian Simons.

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