§ MR. T. F. RICHARDS (Wolverhampton, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the schoolmaster at St. Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, offers flogging, or the alternative of leaving the school, to young men in his charge, even when 68 they are over 18 years of age: whether he is aware that this schoolmaster makes a practice of smoking about the school premises, but offers the above alternative to the young men who have copied his above-mentioned example, even when they are not on the school premises; and whether he can recommend some other alternative punishment less harsh than the above.
§ MR. RUNCIMANI understand that in the case to which my hon. friend refers, the boy was punished not so much for smoking as for a deliberate infraction of a school rule, of which he was well aware. The governing body of the school, which, I may remark, contains a majority of local representatives, after interviewing the boy and his father, and with a full knowledge of the facts, decided unanimously to confirm the action of the headmaster in thus enforcing the discipline of the school. I should be very reluctant to interfere with the responsibility of the governing body for the internal administration of the school, and I do not think the case is one in which the Board should intervene.
§ MR. LUPTONIs it the fact that the schoolmaster' who thus sternly represses smoking himself smokes in the school grounds?
§ MR. RUNCIMANI have no information on that point.
§ MR. T. F. RICHARDSBut that is a part of my Question. Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the schoolmaster was guilty of setting a bad example?
§ MR. RUNCIMANI have no knowledge whatever of his private practice.