UNITED KINGDOM
School CP - November 1954

Daily Mirror, London, 6 November 1954

Schoolmaster who punished 37 boys is cleared

A teacher's right to cane all the class

A SCHOOLMASTER, Gordon Frank Denniss, gave all the thirty-seven boys in his class four strokes of the cane because one of them defied him.

And he was RIGHT in caning them, a court ruled yesterday.

cutting "We consider he acted reasonably in the interests of discipline," said Mr. C.E. Hudson, chairman of Loughborough (Leicestershire) magistrates.

Denniss, thirty-nine years old and 6ft. 4in. tall, was cleared on five summonses taken out by parents alleging that he assaulted their sons. The mass caning took place soon after the boys, all thirteen-year-olds, went into class after morning assembly at Garendon Modern Secondary School.

On the way some of them stamped on the stairs.

Mr. Denniss ordered "Stop that." The stamping ended - then one unknown boy stamped again.

Dark-haired schoolboy Joseph Gary Cooper told the magistrates what happened next.

"When we got into class Mr. Denniss asked who the culprit was," said Joseph. "Mr. Denniss said he would cane the whole form if the boy didn't own up."

Then every boy in the form was caned four times.

There was a one-minute break between each caning - to give the guilty boy a chance to own up. But nobody did.

Mr. Denniss admitted caning the boys.

"It was necessary to maintain discipline," he said. "The stamping by that one boy was in open defiance of my authority."

'No Sneakers'

"I didn't want any sneakers. I wanted no one to split on a class mate. What I did want was that the boy should own up."

Mr. John Rodgers, defending, said that Mr. Denniss welcomed the chance to justify his action as the case was important to all teachers.

"With examples of cosh boys and juvenile crime, and the general lack of discipline before them, what are teachers to do?" asked Mr. Rodgers.

Daily Mail, London, 19 November 1954

'Hit them one by one during history'

'Enraged' teacher beat her class

Guilty of assault: I appeal -- she says

MISS AUDREY MARGARET JEFFS, 23-year-old schoolteacher, was fined Ł1 yesterday for a whipping she gave to all but one in her class of 40 boys and girls, whose average age was nine. With the penalty was an order for Ł5 5s. costs.

MISS MARGARET JEFFS -- Children were whispering.

It happened, the Northampton magistrates were told, on a Monday morning. Miss Jeff's class -- Form 3B -- were taking history at Northampton's junior school, and Miss Jeffs was nearing the end of her patience as the dinner hour approached.

What happened next was told yesterday to the magistrates when Miss Jeffs, of The Warren, Hardingstone, appeared on summonses alleging that she did "assault and beat" 14 boys and girls, aged between 9 and 10. Six of the summonses were withdrawn before the case opened.

"Miss Jeffs was not holding the class enthralled," said Mr. Geoffrey Lane, prosecuting. "Some of the children were whispering.

"She told them to be quiet on two occasions, but this did not deter the whisperers, and Miss Jeffs apparently became somewhat enraged ...

"The weapon used was not a cane or the teacher's hand, for the first thing that came to hand was the teacher's blackboard pointer -- about 3 ft. long.

"Each of the children was in turn taken up before the rest of the class and was beaten across the thighs or legs. The blows varied in their position from the calves of the legs, knee joints up to the thighs, and to the buttocks in various cases. Some were beaten six times, some less.

"An added refinement was that those who were later in the list had the opportunity of observing the discomfort of their fellows as they were dealt with.

Ignored bell

"The school bell rang during the progress of this incident, but flogging continued until it was over and the children were released.

"One of the children whose summons is not proceeded with, was rash enough to say she would tell her mother, whereupon she was again beaten and pushed out of the door."

Many of them were met by their mothers as they left the school, and one of the mothers went straight into the school and asked Miss Jeffs why her child had been punished.

Miss Jeffs replied: "For disobedience." It was a "class punishment," she said.

...

Mugshot of Maureen Wilcox Nine-year-old Maureen Elsie Wilcox, of Ivy-road, Northampton, sat in front of the witness-box. She folded her hands in her lap and said: "Miss Jeffs caned us."