School mob waits for too-tough prefect
Traditionally (in fact and in fiction) prefects are feared. Sometimes they could be bullies, but they always got their way. Perhaps, that image fits better to up-scale ‘public’ school and grammars. One prefect from a modest secondary modern in 1961 had an altogether different experience.
School
mob waits
for the
too-tough
prefect
Head prefect Carl Jacobsen found an angry mob of 70 boys waiting for him as the school broke up for the summer holiday.
When he saw them
standing outside the gates of Cleadon Park Secondary Modern School, South
Shields, Carl returned to the school building.
And late a master
with a car took Carl home – driving slowly through the jeering fist-shaking
crowd of youngsters.
Yesterday,
15-year-old Carl – he’s a burly six-footer and wants to be a policeman – led a
troop of Boy Scouts on a trek over the Northumberland moors.
At his home in
Felton-avenue, South Shields, Carl’s father, Mr Arnie Jacobsen, said: “His
mother is still worried about the incident and thinks the mob will still try to
get him.
“If Carl is
unpopular at the school it is because of his strong sense of duty and
discipline.”
‘LYNCH MOB’
“I think one of
the things which annoyed the boys was that he had reported a number of them for
smoking,” Mr Jacobsen added.
One of the boys at
the school said: “The lads were browned off with Carl. It was like having a
copper in the school. A lot of boys had been caned because of him.”
A housewife living
opposite the school said: “It was quite frightening – like a lynch mob on
television.”
Carl will not be
returning to the school next term. He has sat for a preliminary examination for
the police force and will know the result soon.
Said his father:
“He will make a perfect policeman.”
As published in the Daily Herald, 31 July 1961.
Picture credit: Sting Pictures
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