Sergeant goes into battle over corporal punishment

 

CANE MY SON

Father bans school in a fight for punishment

A POLICEMAN has barred his son from school because of a ban on using the cane.

Sergeant Brian Adams criticised a “lack of discipline” at the comprehensive school.

He wants his 13-year-old son Neil transferred – and he is prepared to risk a jail sentence rather than back down.

Sergeant Adams, of Hawthorn Drive, Blaby, Leicestershire, said yesterday [27 June 1973] “It could cost me my job and I am sure I will wind up in court.”

Sergeant Adams claims that there is not enough discipline at Countesthorpe College, near Leicester, where corporal punishment is banned.

He explained: “Neil was becoming cheeky and arrogant. I was afraid he might turn into a right little rogue.

“I repeatedly asked the school for more discipline, even a belting, and I would have backed them.

Groom

“But they just said they did not believe in it.”

Neil has been spending his days working as an unpaid groom at a riding school.

His father said: “Already there has been a vast change in his outlook. He is a different boy.”

The school’s headmaster, Mr. John Watts, denied there was a lack of discipline.

Mr. Watts said: “Our controls are based on reason and good relations, not on the cane.

“I regard corporal punishment as counter-productive. Even if a parent wanted me to use a belt on his son I would take a professional stance and refuse.”

Complaints

Mr. Andrew Fairbairn, county director of education, said the issue was in the hands of Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher.

Mr. Fairbairn’s committee wants a Government Inspector to investigate complaints about the school from Tory MP John Farr and some parents.

As published in The Daily Mirror, 28 June 1973.

Picture credit: Copper

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