Were you smacked around by your teachers as a kid, what to do about it

the culture of deference

I went to primary school here in the mid 70's up to 84, I had 3 or 4 teachers who were total fu6kin psycho's.

I had forgotten about most of the sh1t we all went through back then, mental nuns, touchy priests, insane brothers as well as sh1t teachers.

One of my mates has a kid ending primary school this year and he said the teacher lost it with 2 of the 12 year olds in his class, he started shouting at them and went to hit one but held back.

It turns out that this teacher is the same psycho that taught me in 82, who use to batter kids, he had a metre stick and would smash it into your hands and knuckles, (you would stand arms outstretched), if you flinched you got it on the palms.

If you flinched again you usually ended up going backwards from a full force punch to the shoulder, (he never hit to the face), followed by the teacher helping you back up again by lifting you up by your locks.

What should be done about this.
He is still teaching in a primary school now. Does someone need to call into him or should we report to the head, or should we just deal with this with violence.

I had forgotten all about him, and now I am annoyed, my 12 year old self remembers the fear and embarassment of getting beaten by a teacher, I really want to take the law into my own hands and pay him a visit.

Do you think the gardai would proscequete me for slapping him around a bit, if his past was known?

OutlawPete

One teacher choked me when I was kid and lied to the head and my folks and said that I was making it up. Seen him last year in Malahide and was going to go up to him but didn't in the end. Not sure why, if I see him again I think I will. No idea if he is still teaching.

Saila

kick him in the face

Mr Benevolent

Teachers. Always stuck in the 'Do as I say, not as I do' mentality. They seem to have some sort of insane superiority complex. Are they brainwashed or something?

PCPhoto

you cant let what happened in the past cloud your actions - if you or your mate feels the teacher should be reported for shouting/raising their arm/hand to a child ....report it to the principle and report it to the gardai.

no actual assault took place - but the threat of assault and investigation could result in the teacher loosing their job.

Feelgood

Can of lynx and a lighter, singe the cnuts eyebrows off.

Duggy747

I started school just after most of that stopped in my area in the early 90's though there were the odd lunatics still about. To lash out they'd trash the classroom by flipping tables or flinging chairs at doors.

Had one guy who'd chuck chalk and erasers at you like a baseball, he'd then stand like a statue and point at you with his cold, dead eyes.

At least I missed one of those Brothers teaching there by a year or two who abused a load of students. Animal.

Rawhead

Sounds to me like you were the retard kid in the class and needed the slaps.

Did you eat a lot of lead paint or live near high power cables maybe?

Give Oprah of Joe a shout about these repressed feelings you have.

AgileMyth

the culture of deference wrote: »

Do you think the gardai would proscequete me for slapping him around a bit, if his past was known?

I'm no expert of law but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to assault someone as long as you claim they hit you back in 1982. Go for it:pac:

Sykk

Best forgotten. I wouldn't trust myself not to kill the cnut. I read a story in the paper a while back a similar story in which the 30 year old went and found the teacher from hell. He ended up killing him by accident and he's now spending the next decade or two in jail.

He'll get what's coming. What goes around comes around. Just let it happen somehow else.

ScumLord

Oh god yeah, the principle of the primary school took a special interest in me. I was kept in at lunch breaks most days, beat the crap out of me from day 1 in school till I left there.

There where a few teachers that where drunks and would have short tempers because of that but the principle just enjoyed beating children.

Redhairedguy

I used to get a crack of the metre stick across the arse from time to time when I was in primary school.

I fu*kin' deserved it though. 7 year old me was a demon.

ejmaztec

Rawhead wrote: »

Sounds to me like you were the retard kid in the class and needed the slaps.

Did you eat a lot of lead paint or live near high power cables maybe?

Give Oprah of Joe a shout about these repressed feelings you have.

...so, what made you decide to become a teacher?

orourkeda

the culture of deference wrote: »

I went to primary school here in the mid 70's up to 84, I had 3 or 4 teachers who were total fu6kin psycho's.

I had forgotten about most of the sh1t we all went through back then, mental nuns, touchy priests, insane brothers as well as sh1t teachers.

One of my mates has a kid ending primary school this year and he said the teacher lost it with 2 of the 12 year olds in his class, he started shouting at them and went to hit one but held back.

It turns out that this teacher is the same psycho that taught me in 82, who use to batter kids, he had a metre stick and would smash it into your hands and knuckles, (you would stand arms outstretched), if you flinched you got it on the palms.

If you flinched again you usually ended up going backwards from a full force punch to the shoulder, (he never hit to the face), followed by the teacher helping you back up again by lifting you up by your locks.

What should be done about this.
He is still teaching in a primary school now. Does someone need to call into him or should we report to the head, or should we just deal with this with violence.

I had forgotten all about him, and now I am annoyed, my 12 year old self remembers the fear and embarassment of getting beaten by a teacher, I really want to take the law into my own hands and pay him a visit.

Do you think the gardai would proscequete me for slapping him around a bit, if his past was known?

yes.

Actually, now that I think on it you'll be grand

JohnMarston

Worst i ever got was a teacher in first class in primary school who used to whack us across the knuckles with a ruler. Hard.

And this was in the early 90s. She was old-school though

CarMuppet

Any of the teachers/brothers that hit me in the 70's or early 80's are pretty much all dead now..... good luck to them.

ScumLord

CarMuppet wrote: »

Any of the teachers/brothers that hit me in the 70's or early 80's are pretty much all dead now..... good luck to them.

Sounds like you had an enjoyable killing spree then?

ejmaztec

It must have been a rare old treat in the good old days, when you got half beaten to death by some fuckwit psycho teacher for being sh1t at sums, and then got another good kicking from your parents when you got home, after they found out that you'd been in trouble at school.

stovelid

Bullied and strapped by one teacher in primary school on a regular basis for about a year purely because I had an English accent back then. Was too young (11) to stand up to him.

Punched once in the face by a teacher in secondary school though admittedly was being quite cheeky to the teacher in front of the class.

jester77

Got a couple of dusters thrown to the side of the head.

Do they still have blackboards in schools these days, or is it all projectors, interactive whiteboards and laptops?

solerina

I never once saw anyone slapped/punched/hit in anyway in school...yeah we got shouted at but that was about all....thought all that stuff stopped back in the 60s.

old hippy

The school I attended in the late 70s early 80s had plenty of teachers who got off on the punishment rap.

Biffers, board dusters, wooden pointers, rulers.

We had one nutjob who used to beat us across the hands with 6 rulers for the slightest infringement. Spelling mistakes, maths mistakes, breathing too loudly.

My mate used to puke every morning before attending those classes. I don't blame him.

His list of abuses is endless but he tore one pupil's hair out, another pupil was made drop his trousers and receive a beating to the backside.

The "teacher" would calm down on a Friday and have a cigarette in class but he was still an utterly scary man.

Several years later, myself and another ex pupil caught up with him as he was leaving one Friday. I wanted to tell him what a deeply unpleasant man he was (using harsher words, natch) but in the end, I saw a pathetic little old man and just ended up saying hello. He barely recognised us.

I wonder how many hundreds of kids he tormented over the years?

Anyways, he's long dead now. Good.

Amalgam

South Dublin.

Chalk sticks pelted at someone in the class to .. 'refocus your attention'. Chalk dusters for someone getting lippy, hurled full force, upper body.

Some exceptions when one of our teachers was having a 'turn'. EU milk bricks, little square feckers. Used for a group usually. Unholy mess and smell..

Ear lobe pinching, full open hand smacks, face and head. Cane in office from a (looking back at it now..) rather flush faced and excited headmaster, hmm..

Skatedude

the yard stick accross the knuckles and hands was very common in our school in the 70's and 80's.
A number of kids ended up with broken fingers etc, but of course nothing was ever done to stop it.
And getting smacked in the head with a thrown wooden duster was an everyday thing .
one teacher shoved a kid so hard that he smashed through the window, luckily it was a ground floor window, but they made the parents pay for it once the kid got out of hospital.

Again nothing happened as people wouldnt go against the church and it was a christian brothers school.
Pretty much common stuff then.

thebigbiffo

some people dont believe this but it's true...

i once saw our primary school principle - a notoriously bad b'astard who was kicked out in the end - lift a guy up by both ears, bang his head off the ceiling a few times while all the while shouting abuse about his mother.

my older brother witnessed the same cnut drag a lad out of class - it tranpires he hung the lad up by his duffel coat in the staff room and the guy proceeded to beat the s'hit out of him. the teacher who came in to cover the class while this was happening did what any upstanding teacher would do; start the entire class singing the national anthem to drown the fella's screams.

i've another couple of stories, but thats prob enough for now...this was circa 1986-7.

Amalgam

That sort of continued adrenalised behaviour cripples a teacher's body, catches up with them big time. Two teachers that I had to suffer under, died from massive heart attacks either near the school, or just after a work day.

One of them, you could sort of pre-empt a loony turn, veins on the forehead would pop, fecker would be deep crimson by the time he was in full swing.

Class sizes were just under forty pupils, typically.

snugglebear

JohnMarston wrote: »

Worst i ever got was a teacher in first class in primary school who used to whack us across the knuckles with a ruler. Hard.

And this was in the early 90s. She was old-school though

same thing happened in my school, was a crazy nun, now retired but nobody did anything about it when the parents complained, it was one of those yellow wooden rulers- sore :mad:

kelle

OMG, some of these stories are horrific. When I think about what we endured in those days, and our parents willingly sent us there knowing what we were getting! My father would joke "did you get any slaps today?" with a smirk on his face and would just say "Aw never mind" if we said we did.

It wasn't even discipline these teachers enforced, if we didn't know the answer to a question we would have our cheeks pulled or slapped - as if that would help us remember! Sure, my aunt even joked that the children from that teacher's classroom would grow up with perfect skin having been pulled into shape! Same teacher used to send one of us out to the trees every morning to find her a stick, or two in case she would break one slapping us!

Thank God things are different now. When my children were starting school, I was so nervous for them - however, if I knew they would endure any of this abuse I would have ended up in an institution!

SeaFields

My principal would shake us something unreal if he caught you doing something you shouldn't have been doing. He'd grab you by the arm and throw you around the place. He's a feeble old man now and fcuk him as far as I'm concerned.

A friend of mine left on a scarf one day in class as it was cold. A nun came up behind her and dragged her off the chair via the scarf because it wasn't part of the uniform. The friends father went into the school and attacked the nun (not physically) and told her that if she ever laid a hand on one of his children again he'd kill her. Nice

And a kinda sad story.... one of my girlfriends uncle was late for school one day so a teacher beat him for it. His father went to the school and bate seven shades of sh!t out of the teacher. From then on all the children from that family were ignored by the teachers and not taught. The youngest child in the family was ignored from the day he walked into school til the day he left and to this day he cannot read or write.

stovelid

kelle wrote: »

My father would joke "did you get any slaps today?" with a smirk on his face and would just say "Aw never mind" if we said we did.

One of the brothers (a bully) slapped the wrong kid (from a serious crime family as I heard years later) in my primary school and the father came up the next say and bundled him out into the corridor and kicked the shit out of him.

aido179

This September: "R for Renvenge!"

His teacher beat him, the principal beat him, his parents beat him, now he's back to teach them a lesson.

"looks like schools out for you old man!" [chainsaw fires up]

Coming to a cinema near you!
rated 'R'

Bottle_of_Smoke

Used to have a nun physically assault me during piano lessons, minor stuff, just slapping my hand when I got notes wrong but the psychological terror she instilled was horrible. Room started spinning once, think it was a panic attack. Wonder can I sue her.

oterra

Yea,
I remember back in the early 80s, I got a bit of a hiding from a Christian Brother. He bet me around the head and neck with a telephone receiver.
Was kinda normal practice in my school. The b011ix is still alive but retired now....:eek:

moomooman

I finished school in '94 and vicious beatings were routine from when I started and I wasnt much of a troublemaker. If anything discipline deteriorates because when you know you're going to get beaten anyway, you might as well do something to deserve it.

Worst things I saw were a primary school headmaster give a right hook to a 12 year old and actually lift the kid of his feet and send him backwards into a wall. I can see that kids look of absolute terror as he slid to the ground looking up at that *******.

In 1990 I saw a teacher, big guy, former rugby player, must have weighed 14 stone beating the daylights out of a 13 year old for copying homework. Kid rolled up into a ball and shrank down into the desk to get away from the slaps and punches, so the "teacher" started booting him in the lower back through the gap in the seat. That man is still there today.

If they did it to an adult it would have been a crime, but for some reason doing that to kids was/is fine. So when I hear teachers today complaining about their job (many of whom were around while this was going on) it makes me happy.

Big Nasty

Got a few slaps in my day - nothing serious but enough to scare me.

More kids could do with that these days.

Gillington

I borrowed a rubber off the girl sitting behind me in 4th class.Our teacher was reading to us from the bible,instead of passing the rubber back I tried to throw it back to her,she went to catch it and knocked her basket of books off the table.I got up as quick as I could to pick them cos I know the teacher would be going mad,he hopped up off his desk,came down and hit me three times on the head...with the bible of all things!!

I told the mammy when I went home,she went up to him the next day and tore him a new one but I think that was a one off,the next week he was teaching me Beatles songs on the guitar!

careca11

I had one awful b0ll0x of a teacher in primary school in the 80' s
he use to lift you by the locks or ear and then thump you across the jaw ,whilst calling you a Cur (whatever the f... that mean's)

i've been on the ned of his fist a few times ,
he actually hit my friend so hard that the poor chap ended up the other side of the room and ended up smacking his head of the wall,

he ended up as principle of the school a couple of years back
ah well , Karma won't be long catching up with him

who the fug

ejmaztec wrote: »

It must have been a rare old treat in the good old days, when you got half beaten to death by some fuckwit psycho teacher for being sh1t at sums, and then got another good kicking from your parents when you got home, after they found out that you'd been in trouble at school.

Not all the time

My next door neighbour back at home, went into the school one afternoon and walloped the master (this was back in the fifties )

When the master recovered he pointed out that giving his son 12 straps for being cheeky was over the top

This guy was the most mild mannered man I have ever met

GAAman

aido179 wrote: »

This September: "R for Renvenge!"

Might want to head back to school there

Paul.C

went to private school and im 26 now. Had computer teacher we called the terminator. Anyway me and my computer partner rearanged the keypad into alphabetical order. When he saw this we both got a smack into the back of head. Then he made us kneel down and face the corner. After 5 min he came over and whalloped the other lad in the head again. As he went for me the other lad stood up and floored him:D nothing was ever said about this after and the teacher layed off

bijapos

We had an Irish teacher who was prone to random acts of violence. Badly beat up a couple of kids as well in the years I was there. He always had a hang up about me, slaps and a punch in the back when you didn't expect it. It seemed he tried to go out with a cousin of mine a couple of times and she turned him down, thats why he had something against me.

Anyway, about a year after the Leaving I was asked to tog out for a challenge match for the local club as they were short a couple of players, turns out he was on the other team, I deliberately broke his nose and got sent off after less than 10 minutes, but I got a lot of cheers and a round of applause off some of his ex students as I left the pitch!

JohnMarston

My uncle went to school in the christian brothers when using the strap was still in fashion. As his last act in the school, he stole the schools supply of leather straps. He still owns one.

Wompa1

It's weird, I started school in 89. None of my friends seem to see any hits or beatings..I went to 4 different schools and there was beatings in all but one. I remember getting smacked in baby infants by my teacher..moved school for 1st class and got hit by the principal, also saw her break a bamboo stick over the back of a child. Her vice principal would jam her thumb into our backs...both of those bitches were nuns.

Next school the principal would not just hit us but give us proper full on smacks across the face. Also threatened me with a metal ruler. He really smacked some of the others really hard...I managed to avoid his wrath for the most part.

Then another school, secondary school there were two teachers that were a bit rouge. I never got hit by them just saw others getting hit. One was even thrown down some stairs..it was about 5 steps from the ground but he was thrown down them anyway.

The nuns have retired, not sure about the baby infants bitch, the guy who threw a guy down some stairs is still working and also was having an affair with a student!!

Guy that threatened me and hit me gave up the hitting after our year left and is currently a local councilor in the area.

Solair

I was in primary school in the 90s and I remember a few weird instances :

1) Being told at age 5 that if I didn't behave that I would be super-glued by the private parts to the ceiling by a 60-year old woman holding a bottle of glue! When you're that age, that's a serious threat and it was a kind of freaky thing to say to anyone. I don't think the woman was a child-abuser, but she'd a WEIRD approach to classroom discipline e.g. threatening people with a broom.
She also held me upside down over a bin on several occasions.

2) A teacher throwing dusters and other objects around the room, narrowly missing people's heads.

3) Generally being yelled at / screamed at.

4) Being put standing in the corner because I sang out of key (I was partially deaf at the time).

5) Having my property confiscated and kept permanently and being fined large amounts of money e.g £5 for absolutely random reasons by the principal.

6) An old Christian Brother talking to a class of 11 year old boys about sex for some totally non-education and rather sleazy way. E.g. asking people had they grown body hair yet! For some reason nobody actually reported this at the time, but thinking back on it it was seriously dodgy.

7) In 6th year, our maths teacher had a complete melt down in a classroom and threw part of her desk through the back window. She had to take a few months off after that due to her "nerves". She'd been a total psycho for years and generally made our lives misery for absolutely no reason. Nothing physically violent, but just threats, shouting, screaming, jumping on desks, slapping books into the desk in front of you, psychological torture that kind of thing. Total nut job!

I also remember a gay guy I was in school with getting serious verbal abuse EVERY DAY from the staff in the school. The students were actually really defensive of him. It got really bad at one stage where every time he tried to answer a question in an English class the teacher would start off with "Well dahhling... how are we today?" and all sorts of random homophobic abuse! Complaints led nowhere.

COYW

bijapos wrote: »

Anyway, about a year after the Leaving I was asked to tog out for a challenge match for the local club as they were short a couple of players, turns out he was on the other team, I deliberately broke his nose and got sent off after less than 10 minutes, but I got a lot of cheers and a round of applause off some of his ex students as I left the pitch!

I am Church of Ireland and suffered terrible abuse from one particular teacher, middle aged alco type, in secondary school when he found out. He called me an orange b to my face and told me that the only reason I was in his honours chemistry class was because he needed me in it to make up to minimum requirement for the class to go ahead. Towards the end of 6th year we had a teachers v students football (soccer) game and I went through him with a tackle, breaking his leg in the process.

elefant

PCPhoto wrote: »

you cant let what happened in the past cloud your actions - if you or your mate feels the teacher should be reported for shouting/raising their arm/hand to a child ....report it to the principle and report it to the gardai.

no actual assault took place - but the threat of assault and investigation could result in the teacher loosing their job.

Technically speaking if he raised his fist a section 2 assault did take place.
If someone apprehends an immediate threat of force then that is an assault.

I did a criminal law exam yesterday, so that accounts for my head being full of this shpit.

Solair

Oh yeah, I forgot another bit of hellish treatment I got!

I am not religious at all and never was. So, as a kid I didn't go to mass and I was quite open about the fact that I didn't believe in what I was being taught in school.

The response was :

1) Being given detention for not going to mass.
2) Being told I was going to hell on a pretty regular basis and called a "heathen" by my religion teacher (a priest).
3) Open criticism of my parents in class (I was 11 years old).
4) Being told that I would be "put into care" as my parents were unfit to look after my religious education. Bear in mind this was the 1990s not the 1950s. It wasn't down the country either, it was a major school in suburban Dublin!
5) Being told that I would be expelled from school on a regular basis because I didn't go to mass etc etc.

The result of that was I used to refuse to go to school and make up all sorts of illnesses to avoid classes. I actually used to get physically sick before religion class as I was aware that I was going to be bullied and humiliated. That went on for years until I moved city and ended up in a not so nutty school.

I mean, yes, I was probably a bit of a cheeky pup who spoke my mind about such issues even at age 11. But, I think it's severely psychological damaging to try and 'break' a kids will and ability to stand up for him/herself and express his/her own ideas freely.

In many ways I think our primary and secondary education system undermines Ireland's ability to compete on the global market as it creates a lot of people who are afraid to speak out of turn / talk / express creative ideas. There was a lot of drilling conformity into people in school here.

If you compare your typical Irish person in their 30s to a typical American in their 30s there's often a huge gap in their confidence and ability to present ideas / express themselves generally.

We're all great craic when a bit drunk, but we're often useless at putting ourselves forward in a social or business situation and I think the education system is largely responsible for that as it encourages people to keep their heads down, behave like robots and shut up and learn things off by heart for exams.

envirowill

I went The Green CBS in Tralee and anyone who has been should remember a few teachers who were fond of a fight.

This all happened during the 90's.

I remember in first year our business studies teacher. He would take off his watch when he got mad and you would know to put your head down (older brother gave some good advice). Guy in my class was being smart, teacher told him to stand up. Exchanged a few words and then the teacher punched him really hard in the chest. The kid goes down crying/screaming that he'll get his dad to **** up the teacher. The kid left school shortly after and I never saw him again. Nothin happened to the teacher.

Another teacher called Paddy would get in to running fights with students. They wouldn't let him teach any of the 5th/6th year classes as the principal knew what he was like and knew he would get murdered by the older lads (he was a short skinny ol' man). Anyway I had the pleasure of being his last class before he got fired. It was another day in 2nd/3rd year(can't recall which exactly) Geography class. A fight flares up as usual between himself and one of the lads, chairs are thrown, punches, headlocks, everyone screaming like monkeys...usual mayham. When the student has enough of the fight he decides to storm out of the class. As he opens the door Paddy manages to slam the door in to him and crush him and adding insult to injury spits in his face.

Well it turned out that the student's dad was a principal in a different school. About a week later that was the end of Paddy's teaching career.

Funnily enough most of the teachers despised us for making up stories and driving "a great man" out of the school. If they only knew.

He wasn't the only one that fought us in that school. I was just lucky to only have one as a teacher.

upandcumming

The old lass was. The teacher hated my grandfather, and she used to knock lumps of my mother because of it. She also got very insulting as well, and made sly remarks during class and I don't think my mother ever recovered, confidence wise. Three years solid of abuse at any age can change people dramatically.

She's very successful but I always wonder what more she could have done if her education didn't take a break for three years.

genie

I wasn't actually smacked around by my teachers but I was bullied/picked upon by both teachers and fellow pupils. I came to live in Ireland from Wales when I was 11 and on the point of going to secondary school. In Ireland you go to secondary school at 12 so while all my friends in Wales went to secondary school, I was still in 'baby school'.

My brother and I also had the misfortune to be sent to a Church of Ireland school which only had 11 pupils, including us, and an elderly teacher who was nuts. She called my brother and me 'Those English' constantly, even though I would helpfully point out that my brother was actually Welsh!

She used to beat the pupils with bamboo canes, one poor child used to wet himself, he was so scared of her. :mad:

She went to hit me once but I told her that caning children was illegal! I had no idea whether it was or not in Ireland and she clearly didn't know either as she didn't try again.

The last straw came when she told me that she wouldn't care if my brother and I were run over by a bus. I told my Mum this and she went ballistic and read the teacher the riot act. Despite this, the teacher still hated us but was a little more careful as to what she said in front of us. :rolleyes:

This awful woman should never have become a teacher as she clearly hated children but there mustn't have been many career opportunities open to her when young and she mustn't have wanted to be a nurse! :rolleyes:

I was bullied at secondary school because of my very English name, my accent, and because they assumed I was Protestant. My family was but my brother and I have never been religious.

I absolutely hated school in Ireland and wouldn't go back for a million Euro.

the_syco

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Wonder can I sue her.

If you do decide to sue her, please sue her as an individual.