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Corpun file 7484 at www.corpun.com
Sunday Truth, Brisbane, 15 June 1969
Flogged, Says Boy
Northern school inquiry ordered
THE Education Department has ordered an urgent top-level investigation into allegations that a boy was flogged by a master at a North Queensland High School.
Sunday Truth is in possession of photographs of the 13-year-old lad's buttocks taken after the alleged punishment.
They show a number of large, bruised weals across the boy's flesh.
The marks appear similar to those which would be caused by strokes from a cane.
The Director General of Education, Mr. G.K.D. Murphy confirmed last week that the boy's father had made a written complaint to the department.
He said the complaint had been referred to a senior inspector in North Queensland for investigation.
The boy told Sunday Truth last week he had been flogged after he had called out a woman teacher's Christian name as she drove past him and another boy on their way home from school.
He said the name-calling incident had occurred on a Friday, and he and the other boy had been called to the principal's office on the following Monday.
The other boy had been given three cuts of the cane on each hand.
The boy said he had been given one stroke of the cane on each hand, but then had refused to hold his hands out for any more punishment.
He claimed he was then grabbed by the arm and struck across the buttocks several times.
The boy's father told Sunday Truth he had spoken to the master by telephone and asked him what authority he had to inflict severe punishment.
He said the teacher had replied that he had to punish children, but would not comment on the severity of punishment.
The father told Sunday Truth that his son did not want to return to the school.
He said his only alternative would be to enrol him at a boarding school in another town.
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