§ MR. STANLEY LEIGHTONasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether, after a consideration of the facts disclosed in the evidence at a coroner's inquest at West Bromwich in the case of the suicide of a school boy, consequent on the pressure to which he was subjected in order to force him through the examinations of the Code, he is still 416 of opinion that the Code requires no amendment?
§ MR. MUNDELLASir, my attention was called to this lamentable case by the reports which appeared in the papers, and I directed that inquiry should be made of the Bromwich School Board as to the facts. I have received, in reply, a letter from the Clerk of the Board, and two local papers reporting the evidence given before the Coroner, and there is nothing in them to support the inference conveyed by the hon. Member's Question. The schoolmaster deposed on oath that the boy was a confirmed truant, and that lately he had refused to punish him for it, as he considered it useless. The letter states as follows:—
Last week he was absent from school four half-days, up to Thursday afternoon, when the master sent a message by a school-fellow to that effect to the boy's home. The mother said she had kept him away once only, and the boy admitted having played truant the other three times. … The master told me that the boy had not been threatened nor unduly pressed with his work, there being no necessity for the latter, as he would have been a sure 'pass'The evidence given before the jury went to show that in various schools in the district unauthorized punishments were inflicted by assistant teachers, but not in this particular school. The jury recommended that, in future, all punishments should be inflicted by the head teacher, which is in conformity with the recommendations of the Education Department. The School Board state they are about to make a full inquiry into the whole case.