Some while ago on Abbey's forum I posted the complete and unexpurgated press report from the Cornishman newspaper of the very real and very severe clothes brush spanking of two sixth formers. I know the story was 'old' but it didn't attract a single reply from other forum contributers.

Considering that my own interests do not include the punishment of girls at school in any way shape or form(I am fully supportive of scholastic cp for boys), I had spent much time finding the article for the perusal of others!

The truth then dawns that many contributing to that forum are not interested in reality and the truth but simply feed on the fiction of notoriety that floods such forums. No doubt the reason for the departure of myself, Fran and others.

Thank you, Elaine, for bringing this extraordinary tale to our attention.

I well remember the case. I was in the sixth form and it was considered fashionable to bring into school a daily newspaper. I would arrive carrying the 'Torygraph', while my classmates brought the 'Mirror' or the 'Daily Worker'. But on that day in July 1964 I suddenly lost interest in the broadsheets and spent many happy hours in the common room drooling over the account in a tabloid of the flagellating Headmaster and his female deputy. There was a photograph of the latter. She was a singularly gruesome looking woman.

The story in the Cornwall newspaper makes exciting reading, and can be found on the corpun.com site. Go to its main page, scroll down to the search box, and therein in type 'Cornishman'.

Being of an obsessive nature, I must point out my two mistakes in my previous message.

The gruesome looking woman was a Senior Mistress and not a Deputy Head, and in the penultimate line the word 'in' is redundant.

Well Elaine, the brush spanking must have been one I missed because I would certainly left some comment. Weel-brushed rear or summit LOL. Will now heid in in (couldnt resist it John!) tae Corpun and hae a wee peek.
Mike (no a Hielander! Jockie)

Good to hear from you again, Mike!

In the light of your remark regarding my grave error, I shall soon be withdrawing the concession I afforded you under the ‘Welcome’ thread.

Before all that however, I shall this evening be drinking your health with a gallon of Old Robin’s Ten-year-old Sump-Oil Special. The label bares the inscription, “A wee drappie doon the gullet will burn your guts awa’.

So, cheers!

Dear Ellaine,
perhaps there were no comments, because although people were interested they had nothing to say/
I started a few threads which were wide open to comment but were ignored? made me wonder have I anoyed everyone, paranoia?
regards
jay

This real-life event seems to have the power to disturb many of those interested in our subject. I don't understand this, because the incident seems to represent CP in a way that proves fantasy and reality are sometimes the same thing.

A Head, and his crony exert their unfair authority to extract the co-operation of 2 young female adults (17 and 18!). The offence is minor, but the penalty couldn't be more severe, or childish.

The Head holds the girl's hands, and looks into her face as she experiences the pain, and humiliation of the brush on her near naked bottom.

Then, he takes her over-the-knee (17 + 18!!!), pins her wrist, and spanks her himself.

He actually physically checks the condition of her exposed buttocks. And, worst of all, if all this has not led to floods of tears, he makes the girl repeat the punishment again!

Strangely, if he had shown any self-control at this point, none of this would even have appeared in the papers.

No, the Head didn't seal his fate until he insisted on inspecting each girls bare (as in 'take your knickers down, girl') bottoms in private on 3 (yes, 3) consecutive occasions.

Surprise, surprise one of the girls broke down in front of her parents, mortified by the daily abuse that followed the punishment, and gave us the court case and newspaper reports we all know so well.

But this story , true as it is, hits all those uncomfortable 'fetish' nerves.

Don't 'cheat' and dismiss this example because of the conviction. The court made it clear that almost all the facts I have mentioned above were exceptable (including, incredibly, the after punishment bare bottom inspections of the 18-year old by a male head).
Had the punishment of the one girl not been doubled, and had the head not 'squeezed' the buttocks afterwards, I think that there is an excellent chance that the police would not have felt their case strong enough to prosecute. I'm afraid many Heads DID abuse their power, and did live out their fantasies, and would even now (if alive still) claim that such actions were legal and acceptable.

Why does the 'Helston' incident cause so much silence? Why indeed!

Having read this article many times it does appear obvious that the only reason for the prosecution was the strange rituals and that everything seemed outside what was accepted practice in education.

The girls should simply have been given the cane. In 1964 it would have raised only a few eyebrows and most certainly not given rise to a prosecution. The caning could even have been severe - with the deputy present as a female witness or even to administer, the girls could have been made to bend over, have their skirts raised to receive six strokes across their pants. They might even have got away with making them pull their pants across to bare their buttocks. Let's face it this would have been exceptionally painful and humiliating but would have been more or less within the rules of the day.

What's more, with no prosecution, many others would have followed in the years to come. Ah well.......

John:

I have made a slight change to your name. The reason can be found under the thread, 'Abbey's Site'.

Larry

This incident was not about a Head and his 'Senior Mistress' accidently over-stepping the bounds of acceptable punishment.

No, this story illustrates how many 'dodgy' head-teachers used the legality of CP as the ultimate 'job-perk'.

Read the details of this case again. The Senior Mistress gives the clue to avoiding legal trouble when enjoying the unreasonable exercise of School authority...namely pick on the kids whose parents express a clear willingness to have their kids humiliated and beaten! We all know, sadly, that in every form-year of 60+ children, in every school back then, some parents would have been enthusiastic backers of 'spare the rod and spoil the daughter'.

Reading between the lines, that 'Helston' brush, probably a more parent-friendly daughter punisher than the cane, got plenty of use in many parent-teacher-naughty-girl sessions.

Of course, human-nature being what it is, forbidden fruit is always the sweetest. This head had no doubt had his fill of watching his Senior give unsatisfiying (to him) hairbrushings to unappealing 3rd years at their parents behest.

So, he's reaching retirement, dying to see out his ultimate fantasy. He chooses an incident that allows moral blackmail of the participants, rather than a usual incident of school rule-breaking, to give himself greater 'flexibility'.

I find it interesting that the only concern of the Senior Mistress was that the Parents hadn't given permission. Shouldn't she have expressed some concern about the appropriateness of the events (given the ages, undressing, and touching).

I find it interesting that the investigating policeman said the Head was the most 'difficult' man that he had ever interviewed. Speaks volumes about how happy we should be when the NUT and others tell us to disregard complaints about teachers by pupils.

I didn't mean to be rude to the previous poster by my 'missing the point' title! I simply meant that there was no way that this Head was trying to give a fair, just, or reasonable punishment. So even if you believe in real-life school CP (which I most certainly don't), the fact that he had NO interest in punishing the 2 boys tells us all we need to know.

Beautifully expressed, Marcus! I have given you a big five for this one.

I first saw this article in print floating about as a loose piece of paper in the sand dunes whilst on holiday as a young girl. I was absolutely mortified that young women could possibly have been given any form of corporal punishment. It had been my experience previously and later whilst in mixed schools that only boys were subject to this particular method of punishment.

One of the first things that I spotted was that the boys concerned had not been given any form of punishment at all. Quite rightly it is pointed out here that this gives away the motives of those involved. As one who believes in corporal punishment for boys, given after careful consideration, this was a clear case of the guilty escaping without a scrape, when the true "case for the cane" was that these boys should have been on the receiving end of six of the best, maybe even in front of the school - the ultimate deterrent.

Elaine

Dear Elaine,

"As one who believes in corporal punishment for boys" [and not girls]

It would be most interesting to know why you are of this opinion.

Melvin

Melvin

This was simply the way things were. It was what I and thousands of other girls were used to. I attended mixed schools throughout my eduaction and the situation was the same throughout - girls did not received corporal punishment but boys most certainly did.

As an adult and later a mother of both sexes my views have not changed. Girls simply do not need to be punished in this way, they respond easily to other methods. Boys however really need it in most cases, one quick glance at the situation in education today, well need I say more.

I have said this many times until I'm blue in the face but the facts stack up against all the fantasists on Abby's forum - for every girl that was given the slipper, strap or cane at school there were a hundred boys, perhaps more. Many authorities actually proscribed such things in their regualations. Maybe things in the home were slightly different but not in my personal experience.

We girls were generally quite "safe" and operated quite freely in the classroom without having to worry about consequences in the way that boys did. It was also quite easy to engineer boys into trouble as another fact in those days was that girls were always to be believed and we quite literally got away with murder. There are many instances I could relate but that is for another time.

Elaine

I strongly disagree with you here elaine. In todays worl where equality is valued highly there should be no distinction between how boys and girls are treated. I realise in the past that there was, but this was a flawed argument. I personally do not agree with corporal punishment, tho this is not a strong disagreement, i just worrk about people abusing its use. But, i cannot condone in any circumstances differences being drawn along sexual lines. Otherwise it is approprriate to say that only men should get well paid jobs etc. Eqaulity is equality both ways!

how was this done and what happened? How did boys take it and what was the reaction of other girls to this?
Were they amused, or did they think it wrong?

Not too difficult and saw it happen many times. Just to give you one example;

In the third year aged about 14 I used to sit next to a good friend called Vicky and she was one hell of a tease and I suppose we egged each other on. We would wait until we were in the class of a particular teacher who had a particular penchant for the cane and was not bothered about laying it on in front of the class. One such class was maths where our main teacher was off ill and was replaced by the boys woodwork teacher. He was known to be very strict with the boys and used a dowel rod instead of the normal cane, but we girls did not get to see this as woodwork was a boys only class in those days. On this particular day he was in a foul mood and we saw our chance to have some fun with two boys who sat in front of us. They were always turning round and picking things up off the floor attempting to look up our skirts.

A quick jab by Vicky with a sharp pencil in between the shoulder blades of the boys in front led to a loud squeal and sudden disturbance - all well timed as the teacher had just given the class a warning about noise etc. Of course the boy tried to blame my friend but as a previous trouble maker the teacher was having none of it. Not sure why, maybe he thought I wasn't involved but I was asked to go over to his empty classroom and fetch a dowel rod from the pile in the wood store behind his desk. As I left the room the boy was being hauled out to the front of the classroom. When I got to his store there were many different dowels there but being me and a little cheeky I picked up one which was much longer than a normal cane and carried it back to the maths room.

When I entered there was a gasp from the class when they saw the dowel I had collected. The boy was bent tightly over the teachers desk awaiting the cane. I returned to my seat just in time to watch a well delivered four strokes which landed with a huge swish with the length of the rod. Dust flew from his trousers and he had trouble getting up at the end but eventually returned to his seat with tears running down his face. To Vicky and myself and some of the other girls it was just another days entertainment.

Horrible I know but many girls were like that and I don't suppose it's much different today even though there is no corporal punishment used.

Elaine

At my boys school sometimes a teacher would ask a class if a boy should be sent for a caning. When a vote was taken the answer was always no-schoolboy loyalty. This was the case even if the potential recipient was a first timer who a lot of the class would secretly like to see get a caning. Did anything like this ever happen in your school. I wouldn't have fancied the boys chance of getting off. Also were many boys able to take a caning without tears. At mine no first timers took it too well, but they were never teased over the tears.(I remember one boy crying for 45 minutes) How did the girls treat boys who cried.
Did they get teased and did you ever try to get a boy who was rarely in trouble caned just to see if he could take it.

although boys were punished more often than girls, girls bottoms' were smacked and slippered at my school, often in front of the whole class. this was in the 1960s and 70s - nothing thought of it at the time. the only thing the girls did not get was the cane on their bottoms.

Can Elaine provide further details on the effectiveness of corporal punishment, when girls were exempt. Did the caning of boys in front of a mixed class continue up to the 5 year? I presume that by the 6 form it had ended. What powers did prefects have at school-could they send younger pupils to the head or witness punishments? If female prefects could order corporal punishment I would have that boys would be much more vulnerable than in a single sex school?

Justin,

Doesn't Elaine write interesting postings?

Just like Fran!

They must be related.

No SJ, not related but we are in the same age group with some similarities to our experiences, but by no means identical. We also have quite different views on the topic, based on our school experience.

It must be quite hard for some people who are much younger to grasp the reality of the post-war educational system that many of us went through. On the other hand some of the facts are quite close to the point where fantasy takes over - see the recent post on this thread asking about prefects etc.

Also like Fran I struggle daily with the fact that I find the whole subject fascinating but feel some sort of guilt as Ididn't use these methods when bringing up my own family.

Incidentally there is someone else with my name posting on Abby's BB with topics that could cause some confusion, also making me vulnerable to some of SJ's wit. Still as they say it goes with the territory!

Dear, dear Elaine,

I have read the messages of the other Elaine and they are distinctly lacking in charm. It is unlikely, therefore, that our readers (most of them) will confuse him with you.

I have included a parenthesis as a tribute to Fran.

Miles

I think that Elaine is the female equivlant of a misogynist. Elaine's beliefs that boys but not girls should be subject to CP seems to originate from the "girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice" school of thought and yet she then goes on to describe some truly horrible female behaviour in getting boys caned for her own gratification.

Question Elaine: Would you have engineered a caning for those boys if you had known that getting caught out yourself would have resulted in you being caned? I suspect that the answer is no, which is of course a very good reason why girls (as well boys) should be caned.

Elaine isn't the female equivalent of ANYthing.

Like most of the 'females' on spanking sites, she's a bloke in disguise.

As you can see I've been reading the old messages.I just have to say that if Elaine is a woman,then I am starting a BITCH Book similar to not an anon donations'
Bastard book in which her name goes in at the top.If she is a man then I make a formal request to have his name entered into the afore mentioned Bastard Book. I was lucky that we didn't have girls like that in my class,but if we did the rule of not hitting girls would have gone out the window.We did have a boy in the class that liked to tattle tale on me or anyone else that he could,but once he got a couple swats himself,that stopped.

And furthermore,for a woman to advocate CP for boys but not girls is despicable.I don't know what the word for a female misogynist would be ,but I'll bet Elaines' picture would be right next to the definition.

The female equivalent of a misogynist is a 'misandrist'.

Misandry is a condition often associated with women of a Sapphic persuasion and, while there are undoubtedly many lesbians who harbour not the slightest ill feeling toward the male sex, it must be said that there are many who would see the world's sperm banks filled to capacity and every male child thereafter strangled at birth.

I have met a good many such women but, strangely and conversely, I have never in my life met or heard of a gay man who wished ill on women in general.

I am always open to suggestions regarding new entries to my BASTARD BOOK. In goes that bloke Elaine. Oh yes!