Teachers had rota to take turns beating children

 

Teachers had rota

to beat children

CUT-CANING

PLEA TO THE

CATHOLICS

TEACHERS at a Roman Catholic school are on a rota to beat children, it was claimed yesterday [28 December 1967].

The claim was made by Mr. R. Wake, a staff inspector of the Department of Education and Science.

And he said it was his experience that corporal punishment “is a more marked feature of Catholic schools than non-Catholic schools.”

Mr. Wake was speaking at a Catholic Teachers’ Federation conference in London.

He said he could name a Catholic school where “all the staff were on a rota to do a beating.”

He added: “This was an unusual case, but the people involved passionately believed this was the right form of punishment, and I passionately believe it is not.”

He said that creating a Christian community of love and charity was more than a matter of Holy Mass and Confession in school.

“It is a mater of thinking out what is involved in creating a Christian school community.

“To face this question might lead us to serious thinking on the question of forms of punishment and of remedial treatment in Catholic schools.”

 

As published in the Daily Mirror, 29 December 1967.

Picture credit: Dave Ell.

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