§ CAPTAIN VERNEYasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether his attention has been called to a case of severe corporal punishment inflicted by Ellen Scholding, schoolmistress of the National School, Hillesden, Bucking- 705 hamshire, on Monday 18th January 1886, upon Harriett Stuchbury, a monitress, aged fourteen years, for the offence of laughing in church the previous day; and, whether such a punishment for such an offence, inflicted by the schoolmistress in school hours, and justified by the school managers, meets with the approval of the Education Department?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (Sir LYON PLAYFAIR),in reply, said, this was one of the cases, fortunately very rare, in which a teacher punished a child in the school for an offence committed in the church. The punishment was unduly severe, and the teacher was brought before the magistrates, who dismissed the case, but warned the mistress to be more careful in future. It had been the practice of the Department to abide by a magisterial decision. At the same time the mistress had been reprimanded, with a warning that a repetition of the offence would require more serious action than a reprimand.