A Change of Regime: the return of corporal punishment

by Susan Thomas

  "I made a mess of that psychology thing they put online. Said what I thought, not what the current thinking is, then I was a few minutes late a couple of times updating my online log. I had a club to run but you know what they're like, they don't realise what kids are like wanting to tell you things before they go home. Soon adds up."

  "Never ever let them know what you really think if you want any kind of career. Just trot out the current party line. Not that I do, but you mustn't follow my example, different times for you. OK, twenty it is, well that will warm you up for the weekend."

  He walked over and lifted her skirt putting it right up onto her back. The girls liked him because he always said, "Excuse me," as he did it and never actually touched them, just their skirts. It was one of the common moans about some of the other heads that they turned the whole thing into a humiliation, but not Mr Kitterick, he was nice.

  He stepped back and raised the paddle. He would have gone easy on the girls but he had to take a photo and post it in his confirmation that their notification had been acted on. It hadn't always been like this of course, just the last eight or nine years, though it seemed longer. He brought the paddle down hard on Olivia's bare bottom with a good hard smack.

  "Oooaah!" She wriggled her bottom as the stinging blow bit into her.

  "The first one is always bad, isn't it?" He asked this conversationally while lining up the next.

  "Yes, it somehow always takes me by... ooaah... that was a hard one... surprise."

  "That was two, I mustn't lose track."

  He smacked the paddle down hard, aiming for a different part as the department liked to see the bottom had been spanked all over.

  "Aaaah! Either you're spanking harder, Mr Kitterick, or I am feeling them more... oooaah that's another that really stung."

  "That was four. No, I'm not spanking harder, but you're tired don't forget. It is now gone seven on Friday and we had two parent consultation evenings this week, both went on late, plus all your usual work."

  "Oooow! They're really getting to me this time, I thought I'd got used to getting them... aaaaah... but I suppose one never does really. Ouch!"

  "That was seven, your bottom is getting very red. Would you like a break at ten? Regulations do allow it."

  "Oh yes please... ow, owow... I'm not taking it well tonight am I?"

  "Eight, oh you're doing fine; you're tired and it's late. Anyway I don't have to report on whether you were stoical or not so scream if you want to and it helps."

  "Oh good grief..." she stamped her foot, "Josephine that hurt."

  "Yes, sorry, it was a bit low that one, it was nine so one more and you can have a short break."

  He smacked the paddle down hard on her now very red bottom and she gave another of her restrained cries that she thought so dreadful.

  "OK, stand up and stretch. Give your bottom a rub it won't show up on the photo."

  She stood up stretched and arched her back and put her hands up under her skirt and gently held her stinging bottom. "Thanks, Mr Kitterick, I really appreciate a quick breather. Twenty is the most I have had."

  He chuckled. "Well you haven't had them all yet. Doing anything nice this weekend?"

  "Yes, as a matter of fact I am," she said as she bent back down and he lifted her skirt again. "Going out with Jane and... oowww... Tracey."

  "Eleven. Oh what are you doing?"

  "Aaaah! Going to see... ouch blooming heck... Macbeth..."

  He paused. "Verdi or Shakespeare?"

  "Shakespeare, meal first then on to... owww. the theatre. That's... ouch, oh good grief that was a hard one..."

  "Fourteen. I went to the opera once in Budapest - strange version of Macbeth, very weird. Didn't help that the translation was in Hungarian and my Italian is rusty."

  "Didn't know... sssssoooah you spoke... sheesh... Italian."

  "That was sixteen, nearly there. Italian grandma. What about Sunday?"

  "Oooow! Boyfriend coming to lunch with my family... ouch... comes most Sundays now."

  "Serious? That was eighteen by the way."

  "Yes... oh my... ow... yes we are getting engaged soon."

  "Great news, now this is the last coming up. Ready?"

  "Yes, Mr Kitterick."

  Tradition demanded the last was worst, though he wasn't sure whether that was in the regulations, and unless an inspector stood and watched, which sometimes happened, it was uncheckable. He brought the paddle down good and hard and she gave a long cry ending in a hissing sound, but stayed in position. He took his phone out of his pocket and took several shots of her bottom in case any weren't clear enough for the department.

  "OK, Olivia, all done."

  She stood up slowly, her hands clasped to her bottom, and then wiped away some moisture from her eyes. "It's being bent over that does it," she said blowing her nose, "always makes my nose run and my eyes start to water on the longer spankings, and that was a long one."

  He knew she had been crying a little but he just nodded understandingly; the girls didn't like to let on a spanking made them cry. That was quite a common thing among the student teachers, but quite how that had come about he wasn't sure.

  As she pulled up her knickers, he asked if she was ready to go. "Yes, my bag is in the corridor outside."

  "Like a lift, I go right past your street? I know you're sore, but it won't take long and you'll be home - better and quicker than walking."

  She picked up her discarded tights not wishing to put those over a sore bottom. "Oh yes, please. Mum hates the time I get in, it'll reduce the telling off I get."

  He laughed. "Come on then, home we go."

  3. The Students of the Nice Headmaster

  Mr Kitterick was looking forward to the meeting. Part of having students involved the need to review some of the structure of the National Curriculum (the current version before they all blinked and it was changed again). It was supposed to be a 'tutorial', but it was so mind-numbingly boring and irrelevant that it could best be described as a box-ticking exercise. This version had been used for several years and he knew that 90% was just boxes and the rest only a little worth doing. Mr Kitterick was skilled at avoiding the time-wasting forms and had been taking shortcuts for years without anyone noticing. He therefore made the tutorial a pleasant social occasion and kept the time tightly controlled while they tackled the 10% (he would just tick the boxes of the rest later).

  He'd had a school assistant make tea and had brought in a lovely selection of cakes. He let them all chatter while they drank and ate cake and thought about how different things were now. When he had been a student, he had lived away from home, but that was now once again only the province of the wealthy. He'd had the vote at eighteen but these girls only reached adulthood at twenty-one, again a return to the past. When he and all his classmates had left school, the idea that they might get corporal punishment at home (or for the most part anywhere else comes to that), was outlandish. Now, however, young folk were subject to corporal punishment in the judicial system. True, a lot of it was supposedly optional, but the alternative was not a wonderful one and most took the punishment.

  It was at home that the greatest changes had taken place. Originally, anything but the mildest spanking was deemed illegal, but now parents were positively encouraged to use moderate and proportionate corporal punishment, and since no youngster became an adult until twenty-one, it was administered right up to that age. He knew these girls were spanked at home because on a few occasions he had seen marks on their bottoms while giving them their compulsory monthly spanking. It was probably only a couple of times a year but that too was another astonishing leap brought in by a revolutionary government. Indeed, the whole monthly spanking ritual was one itself, the government determined that young teachers would be highly disciplined and obedient.

  After the social part, he brought them back to the work and they rattled through it quickly, which left some time which he assured them they could use for their own devices. He knew the girls
worked far harder and were more accountable than his generation, and he felt that they needed the odd sweetener.

  "Now girls," he said - he knew he was supposed to call them colleagues but he was three times their age so it was girls - "next week is half term and I want you to do something during half term for me."

  Their faces dropped and he smiled inwardly, sensing they had plans.

  "I want you to leave school behind for the whole week and do no study, no preparation or even think about this place. The rest of the year is hard slog and I want you girls to take a break so you are refreshed. You all work hard enough as it is."

  They smiled with relief and excitedly told him their plans. Jane's parents had a farmhouse they used as a holiday home up in Cumbria and Jane had invited Olivia and Tracey to spend the week up there with her family. There was to be a barn dance (she assured them it was great fun), a murder mystery evening with dinner, and a treasure hunt. Plus, they could get up in the hills and blow school away and do some walking and chilling out. Olivia and Tracey had to get their parents' permission for this, of course.

  Mr Kitterick smiled and made appropriate responses, all the time thinking how at their age he would have just told his parents he was off away - if they were lucky and he was in a good mood. Was this all an improvement? He wasn't at all sure it was, perhaps things had gone too far now.

  That evening, Olivia told her mum about the half term invitation. "Well, what about Roy? You are supposed to be getting engaged you know."

  "Roy is busy studying for his exams mum and absolutely doesn't want to be interrupted."

  So dad was asked and he agreed to telephone Jane's father to check that this had official parental approval. Olivia listened anxiously to her father's end of the conversation.

  "Yes, yes. Oh yes, I do agree. So anyway, this invitation has your seal of approval? Well that's very generous of you I must say. Yes, I agree they do work extremely hard and do deserve a break now and then... Well I don't think Olivia will be any trouble, she is a very good girl and always has been though obviously..." He laughed a little and continued... "Yes, I think they all do. I suppose we must have been like that. Anyway, I naturally give you full rights so you will be in loco parentis and if you need to... Oh yes quite they must have some freedom but if they get..." He laughed again, "Yes certainly, if you need to you have my authority for it."

  Olivia knew exactly what her dad was saying. He was giving Jane's dad the right to spank her if she did anything wrong. As Jane was twenty-one that might have been awkward in some households as at twenty-one the parental right to chastise ceased. However, Jane had signed an extension contract in return for full support in the final year of her training. Olivia knew she would probably have to do the same.

  With parental permission given and school closed for half term, the girls travelled north together to a simply beautiful farmhouse in Cumbria. The land had been sold to a nearby farmer except for a plot around the house which had been refurbished. The stone walls had been cleaned and inside all the best features retained while every modern convenience had been installed. The views were stunning. The girls were sharing a large bedroom with sloping ceilings and sloping walls. The floorboards were wide and clearly hand cut and had been polished to bring out the beauty of the ancient wood. Three beds with old wooden headboards fitted were prettily made up for them by Jane's mum. In addition to Jane's parents, there were also her Uncle Tim and her Aunt Grace. Their children were older and had already left home.

  The kitchen was huge with an enormous old table for family eating. The one note that jarred was the strap hanging on the wall near the table. It was the domestic version of the punishment strap used in the judicial system, Mr Morris, Jane's dad, explained.

  "I haven't just hung it there for your visit, Tracey and Olivia. Jane has been inviting her friends up for a long time and when she was a teenager those girls could be quite lively, not at all the sober teacher she is now becoming. The strap was a warning to be good, not that it couldn't still be used of course!"

  They all laughed dutifully, though in fact his last statement was true, he could indeed use it on them either jointly or individually. That evening they all sat around together playing board games and drinking wine although not getting drunk. It was surprisingly relaxing for the three girls with Uncle Tim clowning around constantly and making everyone laugh.

  At bedtime the girls sat around in their bedroom talking softly, and because of the strap downstairs shared how often they got punished at home. Olivia's dad took his role as father under the new expectations very seriously, but Olivia wasn't a difficult personality. She reckoned that her punishments had dropped from a high point at around fifteen or sixteen and now she thought twice a year, maybe less. Tracey as the youngest got it more often, probably four times a year, maybe a bit more. Her dad didn't use the bent over position at all; he still put her over his knee as he had when she was younger and used a hairbrush paddle. Jane wasn't too sure as punishments usually went in batches with her, but she thought more than Olivia at around three a year. They talked about how things had changed and how nice Mr Kitterick was, even though most students felt the compulsory monthly spankings unfair.

  The conversation was brought to a close by the sounds coming through the wall from next door. It was clear that Uncle Tim and Aunt Grace were making love and doing so vigorously. The girls stifled giggles and listened amazed that the couple were still making love at their age. In their highly supervised world they were still virgins, albeit reluctant ones. Olivia was eager to make love to Roy; Roy was coming on holiday with them in the summer by which time they would be engaged. Olivia was working on her mum to be allowed to share Roy's room and bed as her sister had done at the same stage.

  The lovemaking next door reached the point where the headboard crashed rhythmically against the wall, making such a din that sleep would have been impossible. The girls stifled their giggles in pillows as Grace became very vocal indeed about her pleasure. Finally, the lovemaking concluded and the girls drifted off to sleep. Olivia had extremely erotic dreams about Roy.

  The next day was spent walking the hills in a mixture of sunshine and showers, but at the end they really felt they had shaken school, work and study off and were having a break. After all, Mr Kitterick had told them to do that. That evening it was the barn dance. The organisers had gone to great trouble decorating the hall, arranging a caller and getting the band. The whole band was made up of middle-aged male enthusiasts who drank so much beer it was a wonder they could play anything, but they never faltered. The girls had to learn and teach English country dancing under the latest version of the highly traditional National Curriculum. They were surprised to find strong overlaps so weren't at a loss. They had a great evening with three very attentive local lads, a fair bit of alcohol and a fish and chip supper (a local tradition at these occasions). The evening ended at a sedate 11 pm with them all breathless, red faced, happy and perhaps a little merry from the drink.

  It was afterwards that things went wrong. The eldest lad lived about a quarter of a mile from the farmhouse owned by Jane's parents. He invited them all back for some wine, beer and 'a laugh', and promised, truthfully as it turned out, that his mum would be there to chaperone the girls. This was extremely important in the highly supervised world that was the girls' life. Jane tried to ring her dad but reception was awful where they were and although she tried again at the lad's house, she still couldn't get a connection. They decided they wouldn't be long, so didn't worry.

  They drank, talked, laughed, and played a very silly game of 'truth or dare' probably more suited to younger teenagers but had fun. The lad's mum had supplied snacks and carefully popped in every now and then, taking her chaperone role seriously. Finally, she came in looking anxious.

  "Girls, I am awfully sorry but I didn't notice the time. Do you know it is now nearly three in the morning?"

  They didn't of course, and for girls of their age to be missing for four hours, without pe
rmission in the brave new order, was serious. The mother ordered the boys to escort them back to the farmhouse and the girls hurtled in the front door at a little after three. Jane's parents, her uncle and aunt, were all up and looking worried. Jane explained where they had been, that they'd been chaperoned and the problem with the phone signal, but the four adults looked sceptical.

  "I think this is best left until morning," said Mr Morris judicially. "It is late and we are all tired. We'll have a late breakfast and then discuss the matter."

  Olivia was tired, but the other two were asleep before her. She lay awake thinking over the situation. It was true they had done nothing wrong, none of the usual sex and drugs worries that still obsessed parents, though it really wasn't a problem any longer. They'd had a few drinks but were not drunk, or at least not enough to warrant punishment. They had been chaperoned as the lad's mother would confirm. However, they had been missing without permission for four hours, and although nothing had come of it that was still an issue, particularly as two of them weren't their kin and they had a responsibility to the other parents. After all, they could have walked back at the start to say where they were going. She concluded that Mr Morris would have to punish them, but perhaps not severely, and mulling it over she decided it would be twelve with that strap of his. Well that was OK, not exactly fun but nothing that they weren't used to, except it was with a man she didn't really know, but then Mr Kitterick had been like that the first time he had given her the monthly. So, decided in her mind, she went to sleep.

  The next morning, as they arrived for the late breakfast, the four adults were already down and all was friendly. There was no mention of the previous night and breakfast was amicable. When all was cleared up, Mr Morris raised the four hours.

  "Now then girls, we all four of us discussed last night before you came down. We are agreed that you could have popped back here to alert us before going, and then there wouldn't have been a problem."