St.
Audries School For Girls
Parents
vote to keep the cane
Corporal punishment
was banned in state schools in the UK in 1987, but private
schools were allowed to self-regulate on the issue.
The European Court
ruling which forced the politicians arms didn`t forbid the use of
corporal punishment, but ruled that parents must be consulted
before it is administered.
In 1988, Mr David
Tough, headmaster of the exclusive St. Audries Girls` private
school in Taunton, Somerset, did just that. He put it to a vote
of both parents and pupils alike, and the result was
overwhelming. Keep The Cane!
For numerous years Mr
Tough had got to the bottom of unruliness in his school with the
traditional cane, administered in the traditional way. The pupil
would be summoned to his study and would be duly punished for
their misdemeanour by having to bend over and feel some
excruciatingly painful whacks across their backside.
One girl who
attended the school when the discipline was Tough was Charlotte
Hiley (right). She`d felt the painful cut of the headmaster`s
cane across her backside numerous times during her school career,
and when in the sixth form was given a choice of being gated
(being kept inside the school grounds) for three weeks or taking
six of the best, she chose the caning.
Charlotte had been
caught out of bounds - a serious breach of the rules - and had
been given the choice by Mr Tough.
Charlotte said:
"I had a choice of getting six whacks with the cane or being
gated for three weeks, so I took the whacks."
"I got sent to
the head`s study that afternoon. It hurt a lot, but it`s over in
a few minutes."
Above left: An example
of how a St. Audries pupil would`ve taken her whacks. Right:
Charlotte Hiley who was, it`s rumoured, caned several times for
misbehaviour by headmaster Mr David Tough in the 1980s.
Please Note:
This reference has been doing the rounds on the internet but
remains unconfirmed by SF&R