High School Principal Paddles 70 on Stage after mass truancy

 

CORRY Pa (AP 6 Mar. 1968) - Some 70 pupils stepped up to the front of the Corry High School auditorium Tuesday and got whacked three times on the backside for playing hooky.

“Physically we didn’t do much to them” said Principal Leroy Peck who administered the punishment. “If they’re embarrassed enough it won’t happen again.”

What happened according to the story Peck said he got from the pupils was that the youngsters felt slighted that they had to go to school while others were closed Monday due to the statewide teachers’ protest.

So one by one and in little groups the pupils — 15 of them girls — went home during afternoon class breaks and didn’t come back.

So shortly after classes started Tuesday Peck called the offenders into the empty auditorium “We told them ‘If you’re going to act like kids we’re going to treat you like kids’ ”

One at a time the pupils stepped forward and took their three whacks each as hard as the other, girls the same as boys

“I treated them all alike” said Peck “I tried not to look at their faces I didn’t even want to know who I was hitting.”

As published in Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas, United States), 6 March 1968.

 

Lots Of Praise For School That Paddles Truants

CORRY, Pa. (AP) - The superintendent of Corry High School, where 70 students were paddled for playing hooky, says he has been besieged with commendations. “I'm very pleased and surprised,” said Ray Elsea.

“One lawyer even wrote from Philadelphia. ‘You don't know me,’ he said, ‘but I want to congratulate you’,”  Elsea said.

“I get the feeling that a lot of people think that this ought to be done more often,” he said.

He said truancy has dropped off sharply.

As published in The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois, United States), 8 March 1968.

Picture credit: Unknown.

Traditional School Discipline

Traditionalschooldiscipline@gmail.com