Views on Suspect Teachers from the Good Old Days42

The only school I am aware of post-1980 – what I might call the modern Equal Opportunity era – where a male staff member administered corporal punishment to girls was quite an unusual case. It was a girl’s school that went co-educational (unusual in itself – quite a few boys schools have taken this step, and very few girls’ schools have) and as they did so decided to hire a male teacher as their new Principal. He insisted that corporal punishment should be available to him as he felt it was necessary in dealing with boys, the school itself insisted on absolute gender equality and also that such a serious form of punishment should be in the hands of the Principal alone, and so wound up with a situation where girls were being caned by a male teacher. But that was, I believe, an almost unique situation (and one that sparked an awful lot of gossip and innuendo until they finally abolished the cane there).