Public canings at school assembly
A bid in 1961 by a local council to ban public canings at school was accepted by committee and later overturned as these two reports from The Daily Mirror reveal.
PUBLIC
CANINGS ARE BANNED
A TOWN’S head teachers were ordered yesterday: Stop
caning children before the whole school.
The order went out from the Education Committee at
Romford who hope to spread the ban throughout Essex.
The committee acted after six teenage girls were caned
before 600 other pupils at Quarles Secondary Girls’ School, Harold Hill,
Romford. The girls were given one stroke on each hand.
The committee said caning in public was “a humiliating
practice.” But their decision was not unanimous. Councillor Stan Shute said: “At
times, public caning can be the only way to discipline children.”
As published in The
Daily Mirror, 13 July 1961.
Bid
to stop ‘public’ caning fails
AN education committee yesterday refused to forbid
head teachers to cane children in front of other children.
The refusal, by Essex Education Committee, followed a
request by Romford Borough Council for change in caning rules.
And that request followed the caning of children in an
assembly hall after prayers at a Romford school.
Yesterday the committee, meeting at Chelmsford, heard
a resolution from Romford deploring the “public humiliation” of children caned
in front of other children.
The resolution added that such canings “degrade the
pupils who are punished, the teaching staff concerned and the children forced
to witness the canings.”
As published in The
Daily Mirror, 10 October 1961.
Picture credit: Unknown.
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