By the time I was in the 7th grade, I had been paddled only one time previously by a teacher (in 4th grade). That one stung and she administered it with a Fli-Back ping pong-type paddle.
Our 7th grade teacher was Ms S, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s, with neatly trimmed dark hair and who wore ‘no-nonsense’ glasses.
The first day of school, she made a point about how she was a strong proponent of discipline. For most of the year, she administered writing punishments for minor infractions. We noticed that even these punishments were typically pretty severe, in that she would make the class write long sentences hundreds of times, which would take hours.
On one occasion, I simply turned in one page of written punishments and attached scribbled pages along with the first page. I thought she would not notice the back up pages and I would save myself a great deal of writing. It worked and she did not notice it.
However, when I tried it a second time, she caught me. She was angry with me and doubled the punishment to be turned in the next day. It was too much to do so I simply skipped it, totally thinking that I would be punished by having recess withheld or detention.
The next day, when I told her that I had not completed the punishment, Ms S again turned angry and then really surprised me by pulling a paddle out of her desk. It was about a foot in length and maybe 5in wide and about a half-inch thick. I immediately began to panic I told her I would do the punishment as she had asked. She replied that it was too late and that she was going to teach me a lesson in front of the class.
I then muttered a mild profanity to myself, which really made her turn very angry as she heard it. Her face turned red and she began slapping the paddle against her hand quite vigorously. She then pulled my arm very strongly and hauled me in front of the class, exclaiming that this would be the last time I would ever utter such a word. By this time I was getting anxious, because she seemed to be ready to really paddle me hard.
She then said: “Pull everything out of your back pockets and put them on the desk.” I could not take my eyes off the paddle, wondering how much it would sting. She also told me to take my glasses off and place them on the desk.
She then commanded me to bend over and grab my ankles and told me very sternly to not block my rear end with my hand. I did as I was told and seemed to be in that position for a while as she lectured me and then announced I would be receiving five swats.
I looked behind me and saw Ms S swing the paddle back very far behind her shoulder. I had a feeling she could swat hard. The paddle made a swooshing sound and then landed with a crack that sounded like a firecracker going off, with a strong echo in the room. It felt like a swarm of bees had stung me at once on my right cheek. The force of the first swat actually propelled me forward.
Very quickly the second swat came with a loud crack. It too was applied to my right cheek and stung tremendously. I began to stand up but Ms S sternly ordered me back into the paddling position. I braced for the third swat. Crack! It came with even stronger force on my left cheek and threw me forward again. Then came the fourth swat, this time applied to the lower part of both cheeks.
The stinging pain made me grab my ankles with increased force and made me rise up on my toes. Ms S said: “I’ll give you a moment before I give you the fifth swat.” After about nearly a minute, she said: “Grab your ankles again for the next swat.”
It came with a very loud crack and was applied again on the lower part of both cheeks. I really felt that fifth swat as my backside was really burning by this time. She then ordered me to sit back down, adding: ‘If you can’.
Finally, she said: “I hope the paddling I just gave you will be a reminder to watch your manners and never try to deceive your teacher ever again, young man.”
I listened and in future was always truthful and discreet out of fear of Ms S and her blistering paddle. The stinging lasted for a full 15 minutes but I felt that paddling for several weeks afterwards.
Contributor: Anonymous