Corpun file 25487 at www.corpun.com

The Pittsburgh Press, Pennsylvania, 1 October 1924, p.9

Insist on Rubber Hose in Schools

Click to enlarge

Elmsford, N.Y., Oct. 1. -- The board of education of this town resolved that hereafter the school children of Elmsford shall not be beaten with the hose as punishment. N.F. Sharidan, president of the board, thereupon launched a controversy by declaring he would decline to permit the board to take up any business until it returns to the rubber hose.

"If these people insist on banishing corporal punishment," he said, "the principal of the school will leave. Sixteen of the 22 women teachers will resign with him."

The controversy centers about Howard L. Holden, the new principal of the school. "I have been principal of high schools for 13 years," he said tonight, "and I have always used a rubber hose to punish children. A rubber hose leaves no mark."

Corpun file 24827 at www.corpun.com

Trenton Times, New Jersey, 6 October 1924

School Hose Whip Will Remain; Teachers Agree On Compromise

Click to enlarge

NEW YORK, Oct. 6. -- The limp bit of rubber hose which stings but does not leave a mark is to remain as the symbol of punishment in the little town of Elmsford, N.Y.

Out of all the harsh words, the threats to resign of Howard L. Holden, the athletic young school principal, and sixteen of his young women teachers, has come a compromise. Hereafter the school children who feel the lash of the hose on their backs have only their parents to blame.

It was announced last night by the Board of Education that a compromise had been reached. Mr. Holden had insisted he must be given back his authority to whip bad school children with the hose or he would resign. With him stood two members of the board, the teachers and many of the parents.

Against them stood the 6 feet 7 inches of Police Justice William Scott, Mrs. Lewis, whose child was beaten by Mr. Holden, and three members of the Board of Education.

For the first time since the controversy started the Board of Education was as one man last night. "Everybody is satisfied," they said. No one will resign and Mr. Holden may continue to wield the rubber hose.

Those children whose parents do not object to Mr. Holden's laying on of the hose will continue to be punished with it when they are unruly.

Oral or written consent will be given to Mr. Holden by such parents. The parents who object to rubber hosing by Mr. Holden will be required to punish their children at home for misdeeds reported by the school. They must give assurance there will be no repetition of the children's offenses.