TominDales
Established Member
The 60s and 70s were not at all crime free, and down right dangerous at times.
You could get yourself badly beaten in the wrong neighborhood. there were a few no go areas. I found too many adults didn't believe children if they were criticising other adults bad behaviour, and too many in authority assumed they new best and did their damnedest to protect their reputations.
When we reported the French teacher to the headteacher for touching up some of the boys, he wrote the man a good reference and he moved to another school. The geography teacher was complety erratic, and unpredictable and would beat you up for no apparent reason. He claimed he had a war wound and drank from a flask. He hit a boy with a chair and smashed it onto the school piano. He would scowl at boys in the shower after rugby and threw his lever arch file at one. His time on duty was terrifying. I told my mum, but she just assumed it was a tall story, until a cleaner told her that he had strangled her and as she was about to pass out he let go and walked off. He disappeared suddenly. Years later the head told me he sacked him as he was a raging alcoholic. But that was after a 10 to 15 year reign of terror. To be fair to the head, it was probably only 3 years into his stint. The replacement geography teacher was equally creepy and vindictive and years later got sent to gaol for child abuse.
Strangely enough I had an enjoyable time despite it, as other teachers were fantastic, dedicated and did interesting things in their free time. One would take us for drives in his MG (about 5 of us could cram in) after school to see historic sites in the nearby countryside. Also as some of the teachers were so obviously out of order the, kids tended to band together in solidarity, so there was not that much bullying at that school.
You could get yourself badly beaten in the wrong neighborhood. there were a few no go areas. I found too many adults didn't believe children if they were criticising other adults bad behaviour, and too many in authority assumed they new best and did their damnedest to protect their reputations.
When we reported the French teacher to the headteacher for touching up some of the boys, he wrote the man a good reference and he moved to another school. The geography teacher was complety erratic, and unpredictable and would beat you up for no apparent reason. He claimed he had a war wound and drank from a flask. He hit a boy with a chair and smashed it onto the school piano. He would scowl at boys in the shower after rugby and threw his lever arch file at one. His time on duty was terrifying. I told my mum, but she just assumed it was a tall story, until a cleaner told her that he had strangled her and as she was about to pass out he let go and walked off. He disappeared suddenly. Years later the head told me he sacked him as he was a raging alcoholic. But that was after a 10 to 15 year reign of terror. To be fair to the head, it was probably only 3 years into his stint. The replacement geography teacher was equally creepy and vindictive and years later got sent to gaol for child abuse.
Strangely enough I had an enjoyable time despite it, as other teachers were fantastic, dedicated and did interesting things in their free time. One would take us for drives in his MG (about 5 of us could cram in) after school to see historic sites in the nearby countryside. Also as some of the teachers were so obviously out of order the, kids tended to band together in solidarity, so there was not that much bullying at that school.