The Party's Ripe for Caning

[This story takes place in a prep school which prepares pupils for three years after high school for university, from ages 18-20. Previous chapters explored Miss Crawford's introduction to the strict disciplinary regimen as the first female teacher of the boys' school.]

Linda Crawford now had completed her second full year as an English teacher at Hamilton Hall. Linda was now 26, still blonde and quite attractive, and very capable of controlling her all-boys' classes at the prep academy, where the pupils ranged between 18 and 21. Mr. Henderson, the Head, had taken a chance when he hired her as the first female on the teaching staff but now relied on her as a mainstay of his faculty.

Linda's time at various traditional British schools imbued her with the view that corporal punishment was an admirable tool for the pedagogue. Hamilton Hall was one of the rare schools in the U.S. that retained this by now rare practice. Masters had instructed boys for generations to lower their trousers and bend over for the cane. Serious offenses were the responsibility of the day's Duty Master, who conducted punishment sessions at the end of the day, assisted by prefects. The most egregious cases were referred to the Head, who was known to use such extreme measures as the triangle and the birching block when deemed necessary.

By now, the undercurrent of school gossip informed new pupils that Miss Crawford, despite her being the sole female adornment of the faculty, was not one to be trifled with. She had become a most feared Duty Mistress and when she felt a boy was testing her mettle, she did not hesitate to write down added refinements on the sealed punishment slip that went to the afternoon's Duty Master. These included figging and nettles.

This term, the school had ventured in a new direction. A first experimental class of girls had been accepted and were being taught together in an all-girls section. They did have Miss Crawford for their English teacher and the Head had told her that he expected she would be the recipient of any special problems any of the girls might encounter.

The first English class was when Linda decided some special orientation was needed. Shebegan her talk with some background:

"I assume that none of you arrived here without knowing that this school is run in the British tradition. And that means that disobedient pupils are punished in class or sent to the Duty Master or Mistress at the end of the day. Punishment, by the way, means corporal punishment, at the discretion of the teacher, you will be told to lift your skirt and lower your panties before bending over the desk."

One girl, Amanda Griffin, couldn't restrain herself from letting out a small sigh of disdain. She raised her hand and was recognized to speak by Linda.

"Do you mean, Miss," she said, "that girls as well as the boys will be caned on the bare in front of the class?"

"That is exactly what I mean, Miss Griffin," Linda replied crisply. "This school believes in serious discipline when pupils do not behave properly. After you have been disciplined, believe me, you will likely strive to avoid a repetition. Now there should be no need for me to note that there will be absolutely no tolerance of improper conduct between teachers and pupils. Two of you will be selected as prefects and as such, one of you will be present with the Duty Master or Mistress whenever a girl is down on the list for punishment. And you all will be present in class as witnesses if a Master determines to discipline someone in class."

Linda decided to warn them of other unusual aspects of the school's disciplinary policy. "The school insists on personal standards of cleanliness being observed," she began. "So you may be subjected to inspection at any time. I would strongly advise always wearing clean underpants and bras. The Matron has been known to inspect boys and girls prior to meals and any teacher may conduct an inspection if there is any reason to suspect failure to comply with standards. If you are discovered to have stains in your panties, for example, you may expect to have them lowered and your bottom subjected to the cane."

With that, Linda moved smartly into her initial lecture and laid out her schedule of grammar, literature, and composition. She saw immediately that two girls seated near the rear of her room, Ashley Wilby, a tall willowy blonde, and Mary Jane Kenison, who was a well-proportiond and well-endowed auburn-haired girl who looked old for her age, exchanged broad smiles when Linda was discussing the possibility of inspection. She decided this was an opportunity to make an impression on these girls who had not been used to the regimen of a traditional boys school like Hamilton Hall.

"You two in the back—Ashley and Mary Jane, I believe?—come up to my desk right now," Linda said in a loud but not shouting voice.

When the two slowly walked to the front, not at all happy to be singled out by the lone female teacher on the first day of school, Linda observed the somewhat fearful looks on their faces.

"Did you two think there was something funny about my description of inspections?" she asked rather strongly.

"No, Miss," Ashley responded first, "we were only realizing that this was quite different from our other school."

"Yes," her friend Mary Jane joined in, "we meant no harm, Miss."

"Well, that's good," Linda said, also smiling. "Because I think you two will do well as our class's first examples of how we inspect here. Bend over my desk and lift your skirts, girls."

The two 18-year-olds were taken aback by Linda's crisp and to them, humiliating, order. But they clumsily bent over the teacher's large desk and then pulled their skirts up, disclosing shiny white and pink panties, respectively.

The rest of the girls in the class sat there with mouths open. None had attended a school with this kind of discipline.

One girl raised her hand. Linda recognized her with a nod and then asked her to state her name.

"I'm Maisie Abbott, Miss," the blonde-haired girl said with some confidence. "May I ask if this kind of inspection will be also done by the other teachers, who are all men?"

"You may ask, Maisie," Linda answered, "and the answer is yes. If you are to be disciplined, there will be a female staff member or prefect in attendance but all inspections tend to occur in the presence of others, so we do not concern ourselves about your being embarrassed since there is scant opportunity for any improper behavior under those circumstances."

"Now Ashley and Mary Jane," she said, returning to the two whose panties were on display. "Lower your panties to your knees and turn the gussets up for my viewing."

The girls were again taken aback by her order but complied and Linda and the class were now staring at two girlish bare white bottoms.

Linda proceeded to bend far enough to give the panty gussets a look. She saw several stains in each.

"Both of you would fail panty inspection," she announced. "I will not embarrass you today by detailing the particular stains I observed but suffice it to say that you would have been sent after class today to the Duty Master or Mistress. This is not something you would have enjoyed. Please regard this as more than fair warning, ladies. You may pull up your pants and return to your seats."

The two chastened girls quickly took themselves right back to their seats and Linda resumed the class, assigning some reading and some grammar exercises.

***

One week into the term, it appeared that the girls had settled into the routine of Hamilton Hall. In view of the increased scrutiny of any teachers anywhere who dared to take any step that might be questioned by the school authorities or parents or others, the male teachers had taken a careful approach to disciplining.

Whenever any girl misbehaved in a way that in the time of all-boys enrollment would have resulted in a quick caning, the master would send a girl in the class to the school office to arrange for a female teacher to join the master in administering the discipline. Linda Crawford had been the only female teacher but now the head had recruited two young women who seemed to have the makings of a Hamilton Hall Mistress.

Joan Wortham and Annabel Lansing had both taught at traditional girls' schools. These had also been modeled on the British public schools for girls and their traditions included subjecting misbehaving pupils to the cane, usually over the skirt, occasionally over the panties, and in the discretion of the Mistress, when behavior was especially serious, on the bare bottom.

Both Joan and Annabel had caned girls on their bare bottoms and assured Mr. Henderson that they had no problem employing this form of punishment for both the girls and boys in their classes. The Head tried to arrange the three Mistress's schedules so that one would be available at most times to be dispatched to a Master's class when a girl was to be disciplined. Mr. Henderson had spoken to the entire faculty about the matter at the opening term meeting.

"I know this seems peculiar and a bit cumbersome," he said plainly, "but we shan't endanger any of you or the school by allowing anyone to question discipline. So if a girl is to be disciplined, and the teacher is male, the Master shall notify my office immediately by sending a class member as courier and I will arrange to have one of the three Mistresses join your class speedily. I trust all of you completely but I'm sure you understand that by utilizing this procedure, we shall avoid any difficulties."

Linda decided to spice the meeting up and also demonstrate that the female teachers were far from soft-hearted types when it came to upholding school discipline.

"Headmaster," she asked, "one of our new Mistresses, Joan, has taught in England and unlike me, who just went to university there, she had occasion to observe how schools like our's discipline pupils. She also spent time with some teachers with experience in India. Based on what she has told me, I was intending to propose that we sanction the use of what is called murga punishment as an added option for faculty members when they feel an alternative like this will prove effective."

Mr. Henderson smiled and responded with a smile, "Linda, I think that is quite a good proposal. I myself have had some experience in the subcontinent so I'm familiar with the punishment you mentioned. But I do feel you had better escribe it for the rest of the faculty, not all of whom may be familiar with this."

"Thank you, Headmaster," Linda continued, "but I really think we should let Joan tell us about it because she has not only heardabout directly from teachers who have used it but she has seen it demonstrated..

With that, she smiled at Joan Wortham, who stood up, only slightly nervous in her first appearance before this largely male faculty. Joan was in her 30s and sported an attractive wedge-cut of her auburn hair atop a trim body that resulted from her regular workouts in the faculty exercise room. She began, "I'll be quite pleased to describe the murga position: it requires squatting and then looping the arms behind the knees and firmly holding the ears. Having to hold the ears is what makes it extremely painful more than any other corporal punishment. It can become very painful after a few minutes.

"So, to repeat," she summarized, "it features requiring the misbehaving pupil—male or female I might add—to place their hands beneath their legs and pull on their ears when their head has been lowered between their legs. It is usual to require them to squat as they get into this position. It is also normal for the teacher to watch this carefully to be sure they are in the proper position and that they are indeed pulling on their ears.

"This is quite a difficult position to maintain," she added. "Pupils will begin to feel strained and frightened after only a few minutes in the murga position. Some teachers will then order the pupil to try to walk while remaining in the position. This is quite difficult and I would advise against use of this refinement. Headmaster, with your permission and Linda's more than kind cooperation, I will now demonstrate the position."

Linda, who was wearing a bright red blouse and navy skirt that came down to her knees, then stood and while squatting, placed her hands beneath her legs and grasped her ears as she lowered her head between her legs. The on-looking faculty was impressed with her lithe ability to assume what clearly looked to be quite an uncomfortable position.

Linda held the position for about two minutes to show the teachers that it did not take long for her to begin experiencing the strain and pain.

"You will note that this punishment is, in my view, quite as severe as a good caning," Joan commented. "And it is equally appropriate for boys and girls. I would recommend that as you begin to award this punishment, you limit the time the pupil is in it to about three minutes. After a few times, this may be lengthened but we do not want the pupils to conclude that maintaining the position is impossible."

"Gentlemen," she added, looking at the men in the room, "you may wish to call for one of us or a prefect because in view of the short skirts on our girls' school uniforms. Having a girl assume the murga position will frequently expose her underpants. Fortunately, Linda as a teacher is wearing a skirt somewhat longer than the school uniform for the girls."

It wasn't long after the meeting that Joan had occasion to employ the murga punishment in her math class. Two of the boys were constantly whispering toward the rear of the room and soon, Joan's patience was exhausted. She summoned both Arthur Grimes and Kent Benson to the front.

"You two don't seem to accept that chatting with each other during class is not permitted," Joan stated. "I am going to punish you in a somewhat different way. This punishment is used in other parts of the world."

She then told both of the boys to squat and loop their arms beneath their thighs and pull on their ears with the hands. She helped both of them assume this contorted position but then warned them to keep pulling and to stay in the uncomfortable squatting position.

The two boys were both 19, in the middle prep year, and figured this was better than the usual caning they were accustomed to receiving from masters as punishment. This mistake in thinking started to come through to them very quickly. After only about ten seconds, both realized that this was a position akin to slow torture. They began to plead with Miss Wortham to allow them to put their hands down to support the squat.

"Absolutely not," Joan intoned. "If either of you removes his hands from the ears, you will be put on the Duty List for today and I'm sure you'd like to avoid that."

She made them stay that way despite constant whining which turned to very pitiful pleading, but then finally gave them permission to stand. This was not easily accomplished due to the pain they had endured from the squatting position and the pulling on their ears. Both were more than happy to return to their seats, much chastened.

Word quickly circulated about the school concerning the new punishment. Most of the girls in the new all-girls class had transferred from other private schools because parents felt that the tradition of strong discipline at Hamilton Hall was something their daughters needed. Several had not totally recognized that the masters and mistresses were serious about disciplining—different teachers employed the cane, the tawse, their hand, and now, the murga position.

Linda also realize that the murga position might serve a purpose akin to corner time, when the offense was more serious. She was in the midst of a literature lecture when she saw in the corner of her eye Nancy Stanley and Irene Cornwall exchange notes. She quickly summoned both to the front. Then she made them assume the sitting murga position but flipped up their short uniform skirts so that their panties were on display.

When both girls protested, she told them that their panties would come down later—for their canings. The two turned bright red in the face and started feeling the slow pain of trying to maintain the uncomfortable murga position. The classroom was deadly quiet as the other girls now understood that this new punishment was diabolical.

Nancy started feeling that her thighs and calves were going numb, and Irene was in constant pain from pulling on her ears. The worst part, she felt, was that Miss Crawford kept a steady glance on the two of them and would bend down and give a hand a tug to emphasize the ear-pulling.

Joan Wortham had told Linda that what would make a real impression was to make the pupil walk while in the squatting murga position. Linda now ordered Nancy and Irene to hold the position and to start walking.

"This is called the murga parade," she said, as both girls hobbled around and felt as awful as they looked. The lesson was not wasted on the rest of the girls in the class. Linda was surprised at how well-behaved the group became after the exhibition of Nancy and Irene being put their paces in murga.