This school features it's headmaster and "The Wacks" on the FR message boards but does anyone know what "The Wacks" actually were and what happened to Mr Morris (court I believe as there is a reference to The Daily Mail)?

A question about punishment at this school was asked over two years ago on this forum (see Page 15) and we know no more now than we did then.

‘The Whacks’ seems to have been an important part of school life as the following memories from the Friends Reunited site show:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joanna, we must have been at Handcross around the same time, I remember the 'lights' off tickles. Don't know what happened to him but saw the article in the mail 10 years later..shock. I just saw him as a father figure when us borders were so far away from home. Mr Lewis was nice.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still in 2 minds about the Headmaster. In some ways a good and kind man, but he ran that school with a tougher regime than some prisons. I don't run my house in Feltham Young Offenders that strictly. Was it right? Who knows. I just know that when it all blew up in the papers I resented my parents for writing him a letter of support. Still not sure what to make of him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added by Stephen Holman on 05/03/2003 18:42The whacks

I managed to avoid the whacks for minuses, but managed to stand out enough from the crowd to get them twice anyway. I got 3 for joining in a food fight at tea time during a power cut, and on another occaision I got 2 for not writing an essay about a trip to Portsmouth we'd taken.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Added by Sharon Bywater on 30/04/2002 16:00The Whacks and The Village

Yet another sufferer of the whacks! However I am amazed some people only got them twice - i scored a rather impressive 10 times visiting JDM's office. Don't regret anything i did so can't say its much of a deterrent!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Added by Ann Whitmore on 20/10/2001 23:38The whacks

No one knew what suffering really was until they had to walk from the girl's changing room to the recreation room for a weekly bout of ballet (an anagram of hell) in the most twee of leotards with a little frilly skirt. De rigueur if you were a wraith, but not if you were any fatter than a beanpole. Anyway, Kim (Hi, Kim, if you are reading this)and I cut the skirts off out leotards. Within hours we were summoned to JD's office and the immortal and bloodcurdling words, 'I'm afraid I'm going to have to....,' sent shivers down our spines. Four whacks later, we were out and free - oh and our leotards were still minus their skirts.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Added by Joanna Coulter on 15/05/2002 21:01The Whacks

I was one of those who got the Whacks with Kiira Roberts (and Sarah Cotton, amongst others) on both occasions. However, I remember that I was going to visit Mark Simpson, and that we got caught not only by Ben Dodd, but also because we left our black gymshoes by the alter in the chapel (with our names written all over them of course) because the door locked behind us and we couldn't get back out that way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Added by Claire Ward on 27/06/2001 11:59The Whacks!!

I got the whacks so many times, I almost became immune to the pain......almost! A very special memory for me will alsways be when Kerrie Dorman and I crept to the boy's annexe one night (it felt like 3am but the rwlaity is that it was probably 11pm!), and whilst we were chatting away, eating tuck, Mr Coombe strode in, snapped on the lights and very cheerfullly said, 'Ladies! What a pleasure to see you. I must however escort you back to your own dormitorys and inform Mogs of this tomorrow....'. Six of the best....AGAIN!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The whacks were given with a leather strap like thing. The unfortunates were called in one by one, with the Head's wife present. He would do the telling off, always finishing with "I'm afraid I'll have to spank you".

They were then told to bend over, and his wife lifted up their skirts and he administered the whacks.

Someone did put this on FR a few years ago, but quickly removed it. I, luckily, managed to catch it.