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

Bottle_of_Smoke · 12-05-2011 01:22PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:22PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:37PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:41PM

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

More kids could do with that these days.

Gillington · 12-05-2011 01:42PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:47PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:49PM

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 · 12-05-2011 01:50PM

aido179 wrote: »

This September: "R for Renvenge!"

Might want to head back to school there

Paul.C · 12-05-2011 02:00PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:08PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:12PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:19PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:20PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:30PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:39PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:42PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:48PM

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 · 12-05-2011 02:49PM

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 · 12-05-2011 03:27PM

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 · 12-05-2011 03:34PM

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

Wonder can I sue her.

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

Big Nasty · 12-05-2011 03:40PM

Slightly OT but I remember being in I think 3rd class when some kid asked to go to the toilet. Teacher said no so she pissed herself. Que the rest of the class sitting around trying there best not to loose it, stifling laughs and all that when one of them can't handle the pressure any longer, goes in to hysterics and literally pisses herself laughing.

Two kids with pissy cax - funniest day ever!:pac::pac::pac:

Ray Palmer · 12-05-2011 05:02PM

I lost 3 of the nails on my hand from being hit with a ruler in the hand. I was 5 years old. I don't even remember what I did just the pain and the months it took my nails to grow back.
My Mam was friends with the teacher who did this and as I didn't want to get into any trouble I said I caught my hand in the door when she saw my hand. Years later when I was about 14 I mentioned what happened as I told my mam her "friend" was a vicious b*tch. My mam was shocked and really found it hard to believe but knew I wasn't lying. Kept asking what did I do to deserve it and I just said couldn't remember but how bad could it have been as I was 5 years old.
She asked your one eventually and she said she remembered that I scribbled on somebody's copy book and how it was funny I still remembered not to cross her. My mam flipped out at her calling her every name under the sun. Lots of people heard the fuss and while she was defending her honour for how things were done. The barman came over and said he was in her class and she was constantly picking on kids beating way beyond anything else in the school. She eventually moved as people suddenly heard how abusive she had been to so many kids.

naasrd · 12-05-2011 05:43PM

Tracked down a maths teacher from my school in Ballyfermot years later and gave him a taste of his own medicine.

LauraKillabean · 12-05-2011 08:13PM

I'm only 16 but when I was in second class in 2003 there was one nun left in our school. I wasn't in her class but I've been told by friends who were in her class that she made girls (it's an all girls school) clean her shoes, wax the floors and threw books down in front of you to give you a fright if you asked your friend for a rubber or pencil or something. Several times she raised her hands to girls and had to hold herself back.

Anyway after Mid-term in February she retired cos she broke her leg falling down the steps out side of the local church (haha) and then halfway through third class it was announced that she had died of some form of cancer.

That batty nun also taught my auntie in the late 70s and the beatings they used to get. Slaps across the hands or back of the head for breathing too loudly.

Makes me feel lucky that I get to go to school without fear of being abused.

--LOS-- · 12-05-2011 08:25PM

I was in primary school in the early 90's and was smacked on the bum by the principle for stepping on the white lines painted on the grass for sports day...a trend that has followed me my entire life

Absurdum · 12-05-2011 09:52PM

My primary school principal used to beat the ****e out of some of the kids - he's now a well known union head.

Mr Benevolent · 13-05-2011 08:56AM

I was in secondary in the 90's and never saw anything physical despite being in a CB school. Heard about a few things happening though.

bijapos · 13-05-2011 10:42AM

Solair wrote: »

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.

Great post Solair, very well put, and after spending a good few years abroad I agree 100%. Hopefully things will change in the future but it will need a total revamp of the way people are educated here.

the culture of deference · 16-05-2011 03:46PM

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.

My mate reported it to the principal, who told him that he had to contact the priest on the school board to get a copy of child policy, then contact department of education to file a complaint, then contact the local gardai, give a statement, then come back to the principal. The charge of assault would be hard to prove.

He mentioned that the same teacher was very violent in the the early 1980's and the department of education said that it was too long to do anything about. What a system we have. This teacher will hit a child again soon.

Duggy747 wrote: »

the odd lunatics still about. To lash out they'd trash the classroom by flipping tables or flinging chairs at doors.

Yeah we had some of those.

jester77 wrote: »

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

I had forgotten about those types.

Amalgam wrote: »

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.

We had one of these too. His name was bop. He threw a pupil out of a classroom windolw (window was closed) once, and got fu6ked out of the school for it. then he got a job in our school.

It took him 4 years to snap again, this time trying to strangle a pupil, in full view of other teachers and pupils. He disappeared for 3 months and came back all better, then retired soon after.

elefant wrote: »

Technically speaking if he raised his fist a section 2 assault did take place.

Correct, its battery if you actually touch.

gigino · 16-05-2011 04:00PM

I remember one bl**dy awful Irish phycho teacher. Put me off the language for life. Other teachers hit as well ( not very much, just the very odd time ) but that Irish teacher ruined lives.

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

Comments