‘Would you like to tell the Commission what happened?’
She looked at him, nervously. ‘Yes, Sir. It was last summer. June. Just after our exams – in the Lower Sixth, you know?’
‘Yes….’
‘Well, Sir… well, we had finished work, and there were no more proper lessons, and we were supposed to be, like, preparing stuff for our projects over the summer hols. And… well, I guess I couldn’t be bothered. I mean, I had been working so hard for the exams and that, and it just didn’t seem on that we had to do all this extra stuff, and anyway we had the whole summer to come so I could do it then.’ She paused, trying to sense if she was saying the right things. The Judge smiled at her, so she continued.
‘Well, Sir, so I just sort of messed around. You know, disappeared off to the sports field with some books to read and just sunbathed, or went to sleep, or whatever. And, well, one afternoon, I sort of took a packet of cigarettes with me….’
‘And you were a heavy smoker?’
‘Erm.. well I guess we all smoked a bit. I mean, you do, don’t you? In the sixth-form? Just a few, mind – at parties, and in the pub.’
‘And was that allowed under your school rules?’
‘Oh God, no, of course not. It’s like a cardinal sin, really not on.’
‘And were you aware of what measures were taken against students who were caught smoking?’
‘Well… sort of.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well it is, like, very serious. But usually they would call people in to see the Head, and he would tick them off, then suspend them for a day or two, or something like that.’
‘Right. Thank you for clarifying that to the Commission. Now – you were telling us about your afternoons sunbathing?’
‘Oh. Yes. Well, it was the day before the end of term – a Thursday. And the weather was really nice, and I had taken some textbooks over to the woods at the end of the school grounds, and was lying there reading them.’ She paused, and blushed. ‘Well, actually, not reading the books from the library – I had taken a novel too and was reading that instead. So I, erm, decided to have a quick ciggie, and was puffing away on it, and basically engrossed in my book, so I didn’t really notice him come over.’
‘Who came over?’
‘Oh, sorry – Mr. Collings, the Deputy Head.’
‘And what happened next?’
‘Well he got really annoyed, and started shouting at me for the smoking, and grabbed the novel and started shouting at me for that too. And then he told me to get up, and that he was going to take me to see the Head.’
‘And what was your reaction?’
‘Well, like a bit shocked…? And also really pissed off with him. Like it was the end of term, and he could have let me off? And I guess a bit worried, too – about seeing the Head. And about maybe being suspended.’
‘Why would that worry you?’
‘Well, at home. You know, having to tell my mum. Since Dad left her, she was really proud of me and my little brother, and it would be sort of letting her down.’
‘I understand. So… Mr. Collings took you to the Head?’
‘Yes. I had to wait outside his study whilst Mr. Collings was in there, for what seemed like ages, and the Head’s Secretary kept looking at me, and telling me that the Head was in a bad mood so I should be careful, and after a while the door opened and Mr. Collings came out and told me to go in, and he had a sort of sneaky smile on his face.’
‘And what happened next?’
‘Well I went in, and the Head was standing behind his desk with his back to the window, and he told me to shut and lock the door and to sit down.’
‘Lock it?’
‘Yes. I was sort of surprised – I mean with his secretary outside and all that.’
‘So what did the Head say to you?’.
‘Well, that he was surprised to see me there. Given that I guess I never got into trouble usually. And that he was really, really disappointed in me. And then he asked me what I thought of the way things were going in the school, which sort of threw me a bit.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘Well… I thought for a bit, and then said that it seemed like it had been a long year, and that everyone seemed a bit tense, you know. And he agreed with me, and then he said that he had been getting really worried lately, what with the way the staff always seemed to be having to deal lots of silly disciplinary issues, and how there had been loads more detentions given out to people in the past term than ever before. So I said that maybe people needed a break, and then he said yes, but he wondered if it was more deep-seated than that.’
‘More deep-seated?’
‘Yes – I asked him what he meant. And he said that maybe he had been getting too soft, letting people get away with things too much, and how he was going to clamp down from the start of the following school year in September, change the atmosphere, make sure people knew that they had to toe the line.’
She hesitated. The judge prompted her: ‘Go on.’
More quietly, she continued. ‘And then he asked me about my smoking. And I said that it was the first time that I had done that, and I was sorry, but that it was the end of term and I guess I wasn’t thinking. And it was horrible, I mean, he looked really angry, and said that he didn’t believe me, that he knew that the Groundsman had found cigarette stubs in the woods quite a lot in the past week, and that my name had been missing loads from a register that they had been keeping in the library of people who were supposed to be studying in there. So I sort of apologised and said that well maybe I had been out in the woods a few times, but that I hadn’t been smoking, it was just that it was easier to study there.’
‘And did he believe you?’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘No he didn’t. He looked really annoyed, and he picked up a piece of paper off his desk, and told me that he and Mr. Collings had made a list of things that I had done wrong. And he read them out – I mean I can’t totally remember the order but it was something like one, playing truant from the library when I should have been studying, two, going out of bounds into the woods, three, reading a novel when I should have been working, four smoking and – and this was the one that he looked really angry about – five lying to him when he had asked me about it.’
‘And what did you say to that?’
‘Well I was lost for words. And worried. I mean, I hadn’t done anything really bad, but when he listed things like that it made me feel like I was a criminal or something.’ She paused, then continued. ‘So then he told me that he was going to treat this as a matter of the utmost severity. That stuck in my mind – the utmost severity. So I said to him please don’t suspend me, my Mum would be so unhappy, and he said that he didn’t think suspension was appropriate given the situation, and that anyway it was the end of term so suspension wasn’t really practical.’
Silence. The judge: ‘And what happened next?’
She bit her lip. Nervously: ‘Well I was wondering what he was going to do if he didn’t suspend me, and anyway he reached into his desk and took out a bunch of keys, then walked over to a cupboard in the corner of the room and opened it, and then…. I could hardly believe my eyes, he took out this thin stick, with a curved handle, and my heart was pounding and he said have you ever seen the cane before? And I say no, no sir. I mean, I didn’t think it was used any more in the school. And he said no, maybe that was the problem, that it wasn’t used enough and that was why discipline was so out of hand. He was sort of flexing it in his hands and I was terrified, I mean surely he wasn’t going to…?’
‘Please continue.’
‘So he walked round behind me, and laid the end of it on my right shoulder and tapped it up and down a couple of times and I could feel it was like really hard and thin and a bit springy. And he told me to stand up, so I did and turned round and faced him and he looked so tall and so angry and threatening, and I was shaking, and he said to me – I’ll never forget it – I am going to give you ten strokes of the cane, two for each of the things that you have done wrong. And I pleaded with him, and said anything but that, and he told me to stop being pathetic. And he told me to take off my blazer and lay it over his desk, so I did – my hands were really shaking – and then to walk round and stand facing the back of the chair. It was, like, wooden, pretty solid. And I remember noticing that the top of the chair back was at about waist height, and realising that he was going to make me bend over it. And all the time I was thinking no, please don’t do this, I can’t believe this is happening to me, and I guess thinking all that even more than worrying about what it was going to actually feel like. It didn’t really seem real.’
She paused, noticing that the entire room was silent, hanging on her every word. She found herself blinking back tears as she went on.
‘And then he told me to take down my trousers and knickers and bend over the chair. And I couldn’t believe it – and I said no, you can’t do this. And he just whacked me with the cane, really hard, right across the back of my thighs and told me to do I now or else. And the pain was like unbelievable, just searing, really bad. And I paused and he did it again even harder, and I could hardly believe how much it hurt and he just shouted at me: Now, get those pants down and get into position, and I was trembling as I tried to undo the button on my trousers, and managed to undo it then pushed them down with my knickers a bit, and I just felt so humiliated. And he made me drop them down to my ankles and I was stood there, virtually naked, just my blouse on, and he said: Bend Over and I leant forward a bit, and he said No, not like that, I want you to hold onto the front legs of the chair, so I had to almost stand on tiptoe to lean forward…’ she blushed, ‘….and I could feel that my legs were a bit apart as I tried to balance myself and I just thought God I hope I am not being too indecent here please God don’t let him be able to look at me.. there. And I could feel tears beginning to well up, and I could feel how sore my thighs were from where he had hit me..’
‘And then he beat you?’
‘Yes. It was agony. He stood behind me, to my left, about a foot or so back and a bit to the side, and he rested the cane right on the middle of my backside and drew it right back and then swiped it forward really, really hard. And like, it pressed me right against the back of the chair, really hard, and for a second I hardly felt anything other than the force of the blow. But then… God, the pain, I mean right across the middle of both buttocks, just welling up, like nothing I had ever experienced before. And it was just overwhelming – I mean I couldn’t sense anything other than this burning in my bum, but after a while – I guess it must have been ten or twenty seconds I felt him place the stick on me again, and whip it down again.’ She stopped and looked at the judge. ‘Do you need to know all this?’
‘Yes, my dear, we do. Please continue. You’re doing very well.’
‘Oh. Thank you. Well, that second stroke was worse than the first, it just felt like it tore into me. And I could feel a tear starting to run down my cheek, and tried to sniff it back, and then he hit me again and it was just so painful, and he was hitting me so hard that it just felt like he really really wanted to hurt me as much as he could, and I thought that he didn’t have to do it so hard, and I just tried to close my eyes and not think about what was happening. And then his next two strokes were sort of one on top of the other, quite quickly after one another and like he was getting the cane to whip a bit more. It’s hard to describe. But anyway, I couldn’t bear it any more, and I jumped up and grabbed my bottom with my hands, and it felt all ridged and swollen, and he just cracked me across the hands with the cane and told me to bend down again.’
She wiped away a tear, clearly struggling with having to tell the story to such a large and dignified group of strangers. ‘Go on,’ said the Judge.
‘And… and then I heard a knock at the door, and Mr. Collings’ voice outside.’
‘Yes?’
‘So the Head went and opened the door, and I could hardly believe it, I mean there I was bent over, virtually naked, and I looked back and could see Collings looking at me and at my bottom, as he gave the Head something to sign, and I could tell that if the Heads’ secretary looked up she would be able to see me through the door as well, and I just wanted to curl up into a ball and die of shame. And anyway, Collings eventually goes out and closes the door, and the Head comes back to me, and I realise I have forgotten how many strokes he has given me, so just shut my eyes and try and block it all out, and he starts thrashing me again, and because of the pause it’s like he is starting again almost so they hurt even more.’
‘So he gave you ten strokes in all?’
‘Well – those ten then – plus the couple on my thighs to start with. As I say, I had forgotten how many he had given me, so I guess I had miscounted and thought he had finished, but then found I still had one left, cos he was tapping the stick on my backside again, so that last one was really hard to take, and he hit me just harder than on any of the others. But then…’ her voice trailed off.
‘Well, he told me to stand up and pull my trousers back up, so I did, and then he walked back round his desk and I was still standing there, and he asked me if I had anything to say for myself, and I just said No Sir. And he asked if I was sure, and I said No, I didn’t have anything to say.’ She hesitated, and started crying, openly.
‘Go on…’
Quietly: ‘He walked back round, and told me to take my pants back down and bend over again, and I was like in a daze, but I did and I was asking why. And he told me that the aim of the flogging had been to make me sorry for what I had done wrong, and that if it hadn’t made me want to apologise to him for that when I was given the opportunity then the caning had obviously not been hard enough. And I said no, sir, I am sorry, really I am, and he said that it was too late now, I obviously didn’t mean it, and then he started whipping me again, so hard, hardly pausing between the strokes, just laying them onto me one after the other, and I was just crying out again and again that I was sorry.’
‘And how many extra did he give you?’
‘I don’t know. He kept going for what seemed like ages, just one after another. I tried not to count. I mean, it must have been at least another ten. At least. I was just saying I am sorry, please sir, please stop. And eventually he gave up.’
‘And then he stopped for good?’
‘Yes. And then he told me to get dressed, so I did, and hen he made me sit down on the chair, which was agony. It was so uncomfortable. And then he said there were two other things to talk about – the first was that I had to sign the punishment book, and he took out this hardbacked book and opened it up and wrote in it and passed it to me, and he had put my name in it, and the date, and under Reason he had put Smoking, Out of Bounds and Other, and under Strokes he had put 10 plus extras. And I had to sign it in a column headed Punishment Accepted By…. And I couldn’t help noticing that the previous name in the book was, like, about three years before, and I could see about ten other names there – all boys – and I wondered when the last girl had been caned. And it also wound me up, to think that the next people who got caned would all see my name there: that was really bad, like the humiliation would stay there for years.’
‘You said there were two things he talked about?’
‘Yes. The other was the cruel one. The Head said that he hoped I remembered our earlier conversation, about how he wanted to improve discipline in he school, and I said that I did, so he told me that the following day in the end-of-year assembly – that the whole school attends – he was going to talk about how he was going to get tougher, and that I would then have to make a speech. That he wanted to make an example of me. And I couldn’t believe it, and tried to argue, but he told me that if I kept disagreeing he would bend me back over the chair and beat me again.’
‘A speech?’
‘Yeah. Well, that night was awful – what with how much my backside hurt, and worrying about the speech. I could hardly bear to go the assembly the following day, and then the Head started on about standards and discipline, and then he said that he was going to be much stricter and as an example wanted me to talk to the pupils, so called me out to the front up onto the stage, and told me to tell the assembly what had happened to me.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I was really crying, so I don’t know whether they heard, but I just said that I had been caught out of bounds and smoking, and then I had been taken to the Head’s study and made to take my trousers down and bend over, and that he had given me the cane really hard on my bare buttocks.’
‘And what was the reaction to that?’
‘I could just feel all these eyes staring at me, knowing that my friends were out there, and my teachers, and all the other pupils, and it just made the whole thing feel so public, and I was so ashamed. And people were, like, really stunned? And I walked back down to my place in the hall with the other pupils in my form, and I could feel everyone’s eyes on me.’
‘I’m sure.’ The judge looked at her. ‘Now. Perhaps the important bit. Did the punishment have any effect on you?’
‘I’m not sure what you mean?’
‘Well – for example: do you still smoke?’
‘God, no. I mean, after that – I would never dare. It just wouldn’t be worth it. No, I guess it certainly cured me of that. I just made sure I stayed right out of trouble throughout my last year.’
‘And what was discipline like in the school after that?’
‘Well, after the summer holidays, it was really different. I guess everyone was toeing the line, making sure they didn’t get caught. I mean, I bet they knew what would happen to them after what had happened to me.’
‘So you think your caning acted as a deterrent?’
‘Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I think it made people realise that they couldn’t mess around.’
The judge looked at her. ‘Thank you. And thank you particularly for being so open with us about what happened. You may step down from the witness box and take a seat.’
She moved to the benches at the side of the room, and sat down, next to a man who she recognised as having spoken immediately before her. He smiled at her, comfortingly, and she remembered how he had spoken about how cruel caning was, and how it should not be allowed.
The judge watched her until she sat down, then addressed the room. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience during the past five days. I know that with all of the speakers that we have heard, it must have been demanding for you to keep your concentration. I’d particularly like to thank our last speaker for her eloquent and honest testimony.’
He smiled at her, and continued. ‘I was asked by the Government to lead this Royal Commission on Corporal Punishment, and make recommendations to them about its future in our schools and colleges. We have heard views on both sides of the argument, and it now falls to me to adjudicate and make a recommendation. We have heard how harsh punishments can be, how much they hurt the individual concerned, how humiliating they are. And yet.. yet is that not the very point? I feel it is our final speaker who has summed up he issues for me completely. One year ago, she was a smoker, in a school with an appalling recent record of indiscipline. With one punishment, not only has she been cured of her smoking, but the whole culture and atmosphere at the school was changed.’
The judge looked around. ‘I have to conclude that this last testimony was a perfect illustration of the value of effective discipline, where even one punishment sets an example to many hundreds of pupils. The case demonstrated very clearly to me the compelling argument for the retention of corporal punishment both for Prevention – deterring students from committing offences – and as a Cure: as a means of modifying and correcting individual behaviour.’
The judge stood up, and as he gathered up his papers, continued: ‘I therefore announce that the conclusion of this Royal Commission is that Corporal Punishment has an invaluable role to play in our society, and that I wholeheartedly support its continuing use. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time.’
