Corporal Punishment in Schools

deisemum · 11-02-2006 10:19PM #1

Please move if this is in the wrong place.

I would like to know if anyone here has ever been hit or thumped or know someone who has been hit by a teacher since the ban on corporal punishment in schools was introduced in 1979

aphex™ · 11-02-2006 10:24PM

Yes in junior/senior infants, 1990/1991 there was a guy who got whacked with a ruler every day.

Turned out he had dyslexia and he ended up going to a special school for it later on. I kid you not.

Only got it once myself, but then I don't have dyslexia so I was lucky.

crazy_dude6662 · 11-02-2006 10:49PM

my sister, the teacher usually got the kid sitting beside her to jab a ruler into her ribs when the teacher wasnt hitting her knuckles with a ruler.....she went to st pauls..so nuns and all that

and it was after 1979

i was verbally asulted by a teacher (not sure if that counts) and the same teacher hurled a copy at my head (on purpose)

Ruaidhri · 11-02-2006 10:54PM

Eh,yeah every student in my primary school.
Handful in my secondary school.

Peteee · 11-02-2006 11:03PM

Yep, in primary and seconday. Not much, and certainly nothing compared to before that, but still.....

11-02-2006 11:05PM

Yeah, was thrown halfway across a room by a teacher when I was 6 for sitting down in the wrong place. Horrible, bitter woman. I gave her such dirty looks for a month she never did it again. She used to hit kids all the time though, mostly the slower ones who turned out to have special needs. It was like she thought if you weren't clever you were worthless.

Another teacher in a different school was just as bad, she verbally abused people all the time. One in particular stuck in my mind, to a girl who wasn't the brightest but was sweet: 'Your sister did all the right things beautifully and you do all the wrong things horribly.' Later in the year, to this same girl, she lost her temper when she came in late and slammed the door. The girl was still coming through the door, got her hand stuck and lost part of her thumb. God knows how these people are still teaching.

Silverfish · 11-02-2006 11:13PM

Got a cane across the palms of my hand several times in baby infants - in - er... 1981? 82?

In sixth class got pushed against a blackboard full force by the headmaster, after he hit the back of my head once or twice with his knuckles. One good thing came of that - I always know where to put the decimal point now.

Piste · 11-02-2006 11:26PM

when i was 6 or so the principal told a boy in my class how she'd love to give him a good slap. This would'vt been around 1996/97

She was a scary dragon of a woman, but I saw her at my sister's (who's still in primary school) school play and realised I cant be scared of her anymore because I'm now much taller than her.

Pwnt.

projectmayhem · 11-02-2006 11:27PM

a teacher in my old primary school was legendary for hitting kids with a ruler, and hit this fat ass huge ruler when she felt a bit more naziish.

i swear if i ever see her again i wont be held responsible for my actions

sportswear · 12-02-2006 12:05AM

yeah . lots in primary school. not terribly badly or sore though. usually done with a hurley.

also this one teacher in primary school if he caught you playing with any of your stationary while he was speaking he just picked it up and fecked it out the third story window into the bushes. bye bye sportswears new parker
pen that he got for his holy communion!!!

in 6th year secondary school my maths teacher used to throw me ferocious digs and used to try and throw me into the girls toilets. but that was just a bit of banter and i gave as good as i got...

senordingdong · 12-02-2006 07:30AM

Why did none of you report it or fight back?

Brother To God · 12-02-2006 08:23AM

I had a bully of a teacher in primary school and I never forgot this man,
I plan revenge someday!! He hit a few students and one "hero" hit him back and it burst into a brawl on the floor with the teacher winning,The guys mother came in to chat about it and went away in tears,this teacher told my mother I ran around the class room with a dustbin on my head,this never happened or else someone slipped me something wacky!

chrismon · 12-02-2006 11:24AM

once in primary school i got thrown over a table for no reason. i was in 5th class, everyone who i still chat to from my class rembers it!
Once in 6th year my maths teacher wouldnt let me go to the toilet, genuinely had to go, so i walked out of class to the toilet, done the buisness, zipped up my fly and teacher walked in behind me and pushed me up against wall and started roaring at me, so i pushed him back and told him he was crap teacher. He lost plot at this went for me again, tripped over himself onto the floor, so i just went back to class never speaking to him again.
Really wish i reported him :mad:

Roen · 12-02-2006 11:30AM

I would like to know if anyone here has ever been hit or thumped or know someone who has been hit by a teacher since the ban on corporal punishment in schools was introduced in 1979

I don't know what it's like now but all during the eighties, from primary up to the end of secondary people in my class were hit, either slapped or punched in the face. And I do mean punched. One lad behind us by a year or two had a tooth knocked out by a duster, although I do think that particular incident was accidental on the part of the teacher, he probably just meant to concuss him instead!

Why did none of you report it or fight back?

We did at times, but what's a 12-17 year old going to do against a fully grown man, your just not physically developed enough to have a hope, all that ended up happening in these cases were that the students would get a worse beating. Don't get me wrong these incidents were few and far between but they did continue right up until I left school in '89. I have no doubt that similar occurrs still today.
As for reporting it? Well it's not that long ago but times were different then, if you got a smack you felt (rightly or wrongly) that you probably deserved it and so were ok with just taking the dig and letting the incident rest there and then instead of getting paretnts involved. There was only one time that I really got an awful half day of repeated punches and smacks from a brother that I did nothing to deserve. I went to my parents about it and nothing came of it. A lot of people were probably in the same position, their parents would probably side with the authority figure that had pulled their offspring up over something.
That said I do remember one or two incidents of parents catching brothers by the neck after their little uns had got a smack.......
.....just my experiences and thoughts, could be right or wrong.....

Guy:Incognito · 12-02-2006 12:16PM

Yep, I got a few slaps on the hands with a ruler. It never did me any harm and I probably could have done with a few more truth be told.

This was primary in the mid 80's,

deisemum · 12-02-2006 12:20PM

senordingdong wrote:

Why did none of you report it or fight back?

It came to my attention last year that my then 9 year old son was being routinely hit or thumped by a male teacher that I did not know even taught him. Whenever his usual teacher (resourse teacher) took the weaker pupils out of the room the thug male teacher would take over the main class.

If they got something wrong he'd thump them or jab them in the ribs from both sides and hurt them. The bigger the child the harder he hit them. My son is one of the biggest in the class so he got hit harder than most. He's a hardy enough child who's used to knocks in rugby and hurling but said he was nearly in tears sometimes.

To say a red mist descended when we heard this would be an understatement. I spoke with a number of other parents who sounded out their children just so I'd be sure of the facts before I got on to the school. 1 child said yes that this happened on a regular basis but that he wasn't hit which my son confirmed, another mother sent me a text confirming that her son had been hit and that it hurt but that it was only messing (typical way for a child trying to cope with bullying) but the mother didn't want to do anything about it. Other children that were hit denied it to their parents and others admitted to being hit but their parents thought that nothing would get done about it anyway and were afraid of what might happen to their children if they rocked the boat.

My husband phoned the Principal who wasn't surprised and said he would stop it. My MIL taught in that school for 20 years approx. and my SIL was a pupil of this male teacher and said he is a sadistic bully. The Principal took it seriously and I do have great respect for him. There are a lot of Principals who have teachers in their schools that they'd like to get rid of but can't.

I reported it to the Gardai because it is classed as assault and it is now on record. I have now made it my business to inform as many parents about what is going on in classrooms that the majority are not aware of. Having spoken to lots of parents (from other schools as well) I'm still shocked by some of the thuggery carried out by teachers. I'm strongly urging parents to report such incidents to the Gardai and forget the BOM, Dept of Education (who have an informal procedure to drag it out for years). It's a crime and should be reported to the Gardai.

The Gardai that I spoke with were very helpful and disgusted and would urge parents to come forward. The Gardai will contact me if or more likely when they get another report against the teacher that hit my son. I'll press charges then.

I was in Inter Cert when the ban on corporal punishment came in. One of the boys was putting up the newspaper article about the ban on the school noticeboard and one of the nuns caught him. She marched him to the staff romm and walloped him along the way. In leaving cert I saw a thug of a male teacher punch one of the lads in my class and split his lip. He's still thumping pupils but pays out a fiver each time.

As part of raising awareness about this I've spoken on radio about it. Anyone here still in school I urge you to get your parents to report it to the Gardai. Any parents reading this remember Not all children tell lies and not all adults tell the truth.

Drag00n79 · 12-02-2006 12:24PM

deisemum wrote:

Please move if this is in the wrong place.

I would like to know if anyone here has ever been hit or thumped or know someone who has been hit by a teacher since the ban on corporal punishment in schools was introduced in 1979

The ban on corporal punishment in Irish schools came into effect in 1982 not 1979.

Willymuncher · 12-02-2006 12:42PM

One teacher I had in secondary school used to have an iron bar to hit students across the head with, sometimes he hit them fairly hard too, other times he'd use his big shovel hands. Got reported a lot but nothing ever came of it. A knacker went for him one time after being hit, that was funny to see

Another teacher used to have students in tears coming from his class, a mate of mine came out crying on a regular basis. I'm not usually a nasty but the dickhead died soon afterwards and a lot of us were better off because of it.

I've never been hit myself though thank god. Out of all the teachers I've had, my two favourites were nuns strangely enough

deisemum · 12-02-2006 01:01PM

Shamrok wrote:

The ban on corporal punishment in Irish schools came into effect in 1982 not 1979.

Sorry you're right, it was announced in 1979 that it was going to be banned but it took until 1982 to have it passed.

Reading most of the examples here happened since then which is wrong.

projectmayhem · 12-02-2006 01:49PM

senordingdong wrote:

Why did none of you report it or fight back?

probably because anyone who got hit by a teacher was under the age of puberty.

slipss · 12-02-2006 02:04PM

Yeah there used to be a wood work teacher in my school that hit me a few times, just a slap like, or pushing me against a wall, I always thought I should have hit him back but I had a bad reputation in the school and I knew I would have got expeled so I never did anything, untill I saw him hit me little brother one day, and follwed him home with a few of me mates and threw two hammers through his front windows of his house and when he ran out of house I told him if he touched me brother again they'd be fire bombs next time. He rang the gaurds and I ended up getting done for criminal damage and threatining behaviour but I was only 15 so nothing happened over it I just got a JLO. But it was worth it because he left the school and moved down the country two months later.

lodgepole · 12-02-2006 02:27PM

A certain amount of it went on while I was in secondary school ('93-'99). I don't recall much about it in primary school, although my teacher in sixth class had a habit of poking you near the collar bone with two joined fingers. Hurt like hell... I'm not sure that a blanket ban is that helpful since it removes certain powers from teachers. I think it's safe to say that behaviour in school is at an all time low and getting worse. Not that I necessarily believe the ability to hit a child would remedy this, but in some cases physical intervention could help.

Fair play to you for highlighting what happened to your son though. As you found out a lot of parents don't care about it enough to put themselves forward.

slipss wrote:

Yeah there used to be a wood work teacher in my school that hit me a few times, just a slap like, or pushing me against a wall, I always thought I should have hit him back but I had a bad reputation in the school and I knew I would have got expeled so I never did anything, untill I saw him hit me little brother one day, and follwed him home with a few of me mates and threw two hammers through his front windows of his house and when he ran out of house I told him if he touched me brother again they'd be fire bombs next time. He rang the gaurds and I ended up getting done for criminal damage and threatining behaviour but I was only 15 so nothing happened over it I just got a JLO. But it was worth it because he left the school and moved down the country two months later.

You sound like a class act.

Litcagral · 12-02-2006 02:52PM

I think the ban was introduced around 1982. I was in second year post primary at the time. The day before it's introduction, one teacher gave us all a hiding. It took a few years for many to adjust to it. They appeared to think it meant a ban on 'formal' punishment e.g. with a cane. They continued to thump us or use a ruler/book/umbrella as a weapon for several years. The wooden duster also served as an excellent missile for those of use caught whispering in class. It left us rubbing our wound and covered in a cloud of chalk dust. Then again some teachers had an aura of calm and control and never required it. When I was six, (1974) I got six lashes of a cane for running in the toilet area. I found that quite traumatic at the time but otherwise it didn't do me any harm.

Piste · 12-02-2006 02:55PM

On the flipside to all this violence, in most schools teachers are very wary about pupils especially since all the church shild abuse scandal has come out. The defenseless child they smacked with a duster fifteen years ago could sue them tomorrow. I know that most teachers are reluctant to touch a pupil at all, and if they have to be alone in a classroom with them they make sure that they are in view of the door and that the door is open to prevent pupils falseley accusing them of assault or abuse.

Sully · 12-02-2006 03:18PM

In primary school I was made get up and walk around the class with the legs of my trousers pulled up -- because I scratched my leg. He made me walk around the class while he made jokes and comments about it. I was young at the time, and a complaint was made but he denied it and we were asked to just leave it by the school priest.

Still teaches to this day, not sure what hes like tho.

In secondary school there was always one teacher that hit people across the head or back with a ruler or his hand. Joking tho, I dont think he meant to hurt anyone.

Piste · 12-02-2006 03:37PM

On a related note, my mum went on to www.ratemyteachers.ie and saw a woman who used to teach her in secondary school who is still teaching and now teaches my cousin. She has great reviews now but my mum said she was an awful b!tch back in the day, so maybe teachers do change for the better. Or maybe the corporal punichment ban just forced them to change.

senordingdong · 12-02-2006 08:18PM

projectmayhem wrote:

probably because anyone who got hit by a teacher was under the age of puberty.

And being under the age of puberty prevents you from telling your parents?

zuma · 12-02-2006 09:14PM

Boys in my town went to the convent school from 5-7 yo and from 8-12yo went to an all boys school.

In the convent when I was 5-7 the head nun would walk around with a ruler and hit you on the back of the legs whenever she thought you deserved it.
When I was 6 the teacher pulled me by my ear so hard it tore from my skin a little and SLOWLY over a month or so fused back together causing more of my ear to attach to my kneck.

From 8-12 the boys only school's male teacher would carry a 1metre length or so of bamboo and use it on our fingers when they wanted to...SCARY sh!t when they wached it aginst the table tops and fingers!

BTW I was born in 1981....so all of the above should NEVER have happened but it did and a lot worse...10 year old boys being physically knocked about by the teachers for making smart remaks during class.
Dont even get me started on Secondary school...teachers kicking chairs HARD in the ass with pupils still sitting in them....head being put in vices* and them being slowly closed!

*=This man later became an alcoholic and currently has mental problems!

projectmayhem · 12-02-2006 09:31PM

senordingdong wrote:

And being under the age of puberty prevents you from telling your parents?

of course not, but at that age you'd be fairly scared of what'd happen if you did. that's why all those child sex/abuse people came out in the 20s and 30s

deisemum · 12-02-2006 09:42PM

It's not as if the teacher who hit the pupils in my sons class was in the habit before the ban came in as he only qualified in the late 80's. Unfortunately he has a long time to go before he retires. He's too long in the tooth to change and it's probably only a matter of time before he hits someone.

oranmore · 14-02-2006 02:31PM

I remember a female teacher lining a few kids up in school and giving them 3 hard lashes with the metre stick accross each palm. we were only 8 years of age. it was an image that has stuck with me since and still disturbs me. the most amazing this that this was in 1983 (so after the ban) so if teachers were so fast to cane for beaking the rules why didnt the dept of education inforce the law and sack her for breaking their rules

Corporal Punishment in Schools

Comments