This happened several years after I graduated from high school. There was a tradition called senior skip day, in which seniors were to skip school for a day. Most of the seniors participated. One year, when the seniors returned, the principal announced that all seniors who skipped school on that day would be paddled. He was new to the job, followed a principal who had been very strict, and doubtless wished to establish his own reputation for being tough on misbehavior. So most of the senior class was paddled. He was widely criticized for this. Most of the community felt that it was wrong of him to punish students for following an established tradition. At least one girl had bruises on her buttocks after being paddled. Another girl who was paddled only skipped that day so she could take her father to the doctor. Finally, once they reached high school, girls were not paddled in my high school. In theory, it could happen. In practice, I had never heard of it before. The principal kept his job, but it was a near thing. That same school year, some organization in the school took a field trip on a school bus. While going down the highway, the driver spotted the flashing lights of a police car in his rear view mirror. He pulled over and asked the state trooper who came to the bus door, "What did I do?" The trooper replied, "I hope it wasn't you." he went on to explain that some of the students on the bus had dropped their paints, pressed their naked butts to the rear window, and mooned the occupants of various vehicles that followed the bus. When they were back in school, the principal decided that for this incident, he would show more wisdom in giving discipline. He carefully investigated to determine which students were guilty, and had a meeting with those students and their parents. The parents were given the choice. Their kids would receive three swats with the paddle or three days suspension from school. This was fine with most of the parents, but one mother insisted that her son was innocent. He hadn't mooned anyone. The other students convinced her that her son had, indeed participated in the mooning. She turned to the principal and said, "I want you to spank his behind until he'll be ashamed to show it." |