Trying the patience of a saint
Miss Svenson had inherited a very difficult situation when she became headmistress, but she had impressed everyone by her calm, considered and extremely effective approach to dealing with the main problem areas one by one.
Her first priority had been to tackle the problem of pilfering ñ especially the pilfering of girl’s knickers from the gym changing rooms and lockers.† Michael was one of the principal offenders in this area and had proved an obdurate case.† Eventually, after acquiring some top quality school straps, and several sessions with Michael in her study over her knee, touching his toes and over the arm of the couch, she was finally making progress.
Michael had had a few sessions at the school assembly where his knickers were well and truly warmed, and he had been threatened with a tour of the classrooms where the girls whose knickers he had taken could see the consequences.
It was in may ways amazing that Miss Svenson was able to preserve her equanimity and not completely lose her temper considering Michael’s behavior.† Miss Svenson smacked really hard, but always under complete control, more in sadness than in anger.
Another headmistress might have lost her temper, but Miss Svenson never did.† This report gives the background to the one time that Miss Svenson was really and truly angry and smacked ìin temperî rather than in her usual calm manner.
The incident took place as Miss Svenson began her ìcampaignî against the second major problem she had with the boys’ (especially of course, Michael) behavior after she had made progress with the initial problem of pilfering.
This was the problem of certain boys having a fixation with girls’ knickers and bottoms ñ in the sense of looking up skirts, even lifting skirts and, in Michael’s case, spying in the girls’ toilets.
It is very hard to understand the nature of some boys’ fixation with ìknickers up skirtsî and this can be illustrated by considering that, at St. Mary’s the girls play hockey in games skirts while they do netball and gym in regulation gym knickers.
One would expect to see the boys gathered round the netball courts where there are plenty of girls clad in just knickers for them to leer at.† But in fact, it is round the hockey pitch that they are to be found.
It seems that a boy would rather catch a glimpse of a girl’s knickers under her skirt, than to see her wearing nothing but knickers.† The little madams know that very well, and many a time a naughty little minx had made a visit to Miss Svenson’s study, where there is another opportunity for them to show off their knickers ñ though one they seem much less enthusiastic about.
Once the girls realized the consequences of this kind of behavior there was an immediate decline in the opportunities for the boys to get a ìfree lookî but this also led to a most regrettable incidence of skirt flipping by some of the boys ñ and, of course, Michael was a ringleader.
Michael actually initiated a game in which points were awarded.† The basic scale was 1 point for a skirt lift for a first year girl, 2 for a second year, up to 6 for a 6th former.† Points were doubled for a ìstealthy liftî which meant pinning the skirt hem to the back of a girl’s blouse without her realizing it.
Finally, and most disgraceful, triple points were earned for coming up behind a netball player and pulling her knickers down.† So far, Michael had not been caught earning triple points, but he had had a number of ìchatsî with Miss Svenson about his single and double points tally.
By way of ìpoetic justiceî Miss Svenson had spoken to his mother who sent Michael’s old kilt to school.† This was, by now, far too short for him, shorter even than the girls’ hockey skirts, and he would spend an hour or so waiting outside Miss Svenson’s study with the kilt pinned up at the back to be admired by all passers by.
He used to desperately wish that he could have a good sturdy pair of navy blue gym knickers, for such occasions, but given his predilection for pilfering knickers, he would be compelled to display a variety of ìnot very niceî knickers.
His downfall came on the Saturday of the annual sports day, a highlight of which was the staff/pupil hockey match, and as a good sport, Miss Svenson participated.† As may be imagined, practically every boy in school found a compelling interest in girls’ hockey.† The staff team was in white blouses, navy pleated skirts and bottle green knickers.† In fact, although the skirts are short, in general there is very little display of knickers, but boys are eternal optimists.
Later, in the afternoon when the match was over, Michael was ìprowlingî looking for targets of opportunity, and he suddenly came upon what seemed to him to be a fantastic double 6 pointer.† An elegant 6th former was leaning on the rail watching the activity on the field.† There was nobody standing nearby, and Michael had his big safety pin.
He stole up behind her and took hold of the hem of her skirt and raised it gently.† He almost swooned with delight as he exposed the navy blue covered bottom.† But then disaster struck as he began to insert the pin.† Something alerted the ìgirlî and she swung around suddenly and caught him in the act.
Then he really did just about die as the ìgirlî turned out to be none other than his headmistress, Miss Svenson, and she was FURIOUS.
How is it that a lady has a sense for the position of her skirt and the risk of displaying her knickers?† Is it something that girls learn as they grow up, or is it an instinct that they are born with?
In spite of all the ladies wearing skirts and the prevalence of high winds, it is a rare treat for the naughty boy to catch a glimpse of a lady’s knickers.† Do the ladies sense when the gust of wind is about to come and know how to discretely control the hem to preserve modesty?† And, as the naughty boys resort to naughty tricks to steal glimpses, do the ladies have an instinct for the gaze of the naughty boys?
Just as the fruit that is out of reach is the most tempting, so the naughty boy lusts to see the ìunattainable knickers.î† Miss Svenson’s usual style of dress, with her knee-length straight skirts offered little opportunity for prying eyes.
Perhaps, as the joined in the annual staff-pupil hockey match, Miss Svenson, had a momentary thought of allowing the naughty boys an opportunity to indulge their fertile imagination.† And, in reality, it was essentially imagination, for, in spite of the shortness of the uniform hockey skirt, it was rare to see anything but a momentary glimpse of a navy blue knicker leg.
Michael had mistaken Miss Svenson for a 6th form girl and, in line with the stupid point-scoring game that he had invented, he saw an opportunity for a ìdouble 6î score (6 points for revealing a 6th-former’s knickers, doubled for pinning up the back of the skirt.
He had raised the skirt at the back ready to put the pin in place, perhaps he paused to admire the expanse of navy blue cotton covering the ìgirl’sî exquisitely formed bottom, and that was his undoing.
Miss Svenson’s ìlady’s intuitionî alerted her to the raising of the hem of her skirt and she spun around, a hand sweeping the hem instinctively back into place.† Perhaps her initial thought was that there had been a gust of wind, and as she swung around, she was disconcerted to find Michael standing right behind her.
Her hands went instinctively to the seat of her skirt, smoothing it down and then she noted Michael with a look of shock and horror on his face as he realized what he had done.† Initially she was a little disoriented, unsure of exactly what had occurred, and then she came to the shocked realization that Michael had actually dared to lift up the hem of her skirt.
What do you think you are doing?† Did you touch my skirt?† Michael was just speechless, and could only gape open mouthed.† Instinctively, Miss Svenson gave him an almighty smack round the side of his head and grabbed him by the wrist.
She quickly collected herself and paused to count to 5.† She then began to drag him by the wrist towards the school buildings, berating and scolding him as she pulled him along.† She was a bit like a pot boiling over and every few steps, she would pause and wallop him round the legs and continue the scolding and promises of what was to come.
As they progressed, an audience accumulated as the girls saw their tormentor finally brought to justice.† Each flurry of smacks was greeted by cheers and by the time they reached the office, there were a dozen or so girls and a few teachers watching the proceedings.
By this time, Miss Svenson’s anger had reached full boiling point, and her mind was full of thoughts of murder.† Realizing that she needed a moment to just gather her thoughts and decide exactly what to do, she left him in charge of the school secretary while she went into her office to change clothes and to plan the next step.† Before going into her office she asked the secretary to ìget his shorts and knickers offî and I will be out in a minute to deal with him.
Now, although Miss Svenson never hesitated to smack on the bare bottom, she didn’t approve at all of ìnudityî or excessive exposure but on this occasion, perhaps because of the nature of Michael’s offense, his shorts and knickers came right off, leaving him in only his short t‑shirt.
Miss Svenson’s first instinct was to reach for the really big heavy tawse and to thrash Michael ìwithin an inch of his lifeî but she also realized that in her furious state, she might either ìdamageî him, or else feel bound to stop before she had fully vented her fury.† So, she selected the short ìsmacking strapî and resolved to give him a smacking that would go down in history.
This was certainly not a decision to be ìlenientî — far from it, if anything it was part of a decision to be as severe as possible.† She had decided that the smacking would be only the first component, and it would be followed in due time by a sound thrashing with the big strap.† And, in addition, the smacking that she had in mind was certainly not a soft option.
Miss Svenson’s usual approach to severe punishment took the form of ìsetsî of wallops with the cane or the strap.† Sets were usually 24 at a time, and she required the recipient to keep count.
In spite of the severity of the strokes, boys develop ìdefense mechanismsî to cope with such strappings.† In a 24 stroke strapping, the boy will grit his teeth through the first 6, and then ìcount downî through to the end of the first 12 and then focus on the fact that it is more than half over and then, before he knows it, he is counting out the last 6 towards the end.† In addition, boys realize that the need to count, gives them a possibility (just a little) do delay the count to ìcontrolî the timing of strokes.
With a ìsmackingî there is no set number for the boy to focus on, and there is no steady pace for the strokes.† Repeated hard smacks on the same place cause a build-up of pain that feels like an unquenchable fire that becomes unbearable.† And then comes the realization that, even though it is utterly unbearable, it is not going to stop, but it is going to get sorer and sorer.
That is the point where one gets the hopeless tears , and then comes the realization, that it will be even worse as Miss Svenson moves the landing spot from bottom down to the tops of the legs, smacking if it is possible, even harder, with the admonition ìstop that cryingî and ìdo you want something to really cry about?î
The other aspect of these smackings was that in spite of the severity, it resulted in a really sore and hot bottom, but did no lasting damage, so it was a ìsaferî form of punishment to give ìin anger.î
So, it was with that determination that Miss Svenson emerged from her office with the smacking strap ready to deal with Michael.
But before the smacking began, she resolved to ìget to the bottomî of Michael’s nonsense and the silly game.† In front of the considerable audience that had gathered, she questioned him in detail.† She got the confession that he had done it as part of his point gathering game, and she made him explain how the points were gathered and she forced him to confess to how many points he had accumulated and how.
During the interrogation, he had to stand with his hands on his head and she punctuated the ìdiscussionî with hard smacks round his legs.† Eventually, the smacking began with his shorts and knickers not round his ankles, but completely off, and the smacking was not given by hand, but with the smacking strap.
At the conclusion, Miss Svenson announced that Michael would be appearing at the Monday morning assembly, dressed for netball (blouse and knickers) and all the girls would earn a triple point score when his knickers came down to receive the big strap.† She said she would announce at assembly whether he was to have a fixed number or an uncounted thrashing.
She also announced that, until further notice, Michael would wear his kilt (the very short one) at school, and that it would be pinned up at the back (and she also said that each girls’ class could take a turn at providing the knickers that he would wear under his kilt.)