1851 Manual of School Government also listed offenses that should be severely punished (lying, using obscene words, irreverent conduct in church or during prayers at schools). Very severe punishment for fighting.
Lesser punishments – strapping on the hand, which had been the most severe punishment permitted at one stage – was for not being attentive in lesson, or prayer, or catechism, for not obeying signals immediately, for being late, and ‘for many and other similar causes.
During the first 80 years of the Order, there was ONE case where a Brother was charged with assault (1842). A Brother beat a boy with a pointer which left marks on his flesh. His mother took him to hospital where the doctor advised the mother to have the Brother charged and punished. She took him before the Magistrates. It was stated at trial that, if not for the high character of the schools and the high regard one of the Magistrates had personally for Edmund Rice, the Brother would almost certainly have received six months of hard labor. As it was, he escaped with a severe reprimand. This Brother was dismissed from the Order a year later.