New rules on how to deliver school canings drawn up

Boys can be caned on the hands or buttocks, says the code, but girls – who should be given corporal punishment only in exceptional circumstances – must be struck on the hands only – New rules on caning in schools were discussed in 1950.

SCHOOL CANING CODE

TELLS WHERE

TO HIT CHILD

A TEN-POINT caning code for dealing with naughty children in school is to be considered today by a county education committee, with a recommendation that it should be made compulsory in all schools in the committee’s area.

The code tells teachers what parts of the offending child can be hit, and when to use a cane, or to inflict an open hand slap. It bans the boxing of ears.

Drawn up by the schools sub-committee of the Middlesex Education Committee, the code states that corporal punishment must be inflicted only by headmasters, headmistresses and specially authorised teachers.

Corporal punishment, it is laid down, should never be severe and used only when other punishments do not seem adequate. And the caning should be done in private.

Boys can be caned on the hands or buttocks, says the code, but girls – who should be given corporal punishment only in exceptional circumstances – must be struck on the hands only.

Of All Ages

Punishment banned by the code as well as boxing ears includes blows on the head, and rapping knuckles.

The code should apply to children of all ages, states the sub-committee, but corporal punishment should rarely be necessary in infant schools.

“Where it appears to be the only remedy, the use of the open hand on forearm or thigh should be sufficient,” adds the report.

If the code is adopted by the education committee, a punishment book will have to be kept in every school in the county maintained or assisted by the county council.

To Be Logged

Every caning will be logged in the book with the name of the punisher as well as that of the punished.

And the head of the school will have to initial each entry made.

As published in the Daily Mirror, 10 July 1950.

Picture credit: Unknown

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