More News from the Punishment Rooms and the Altar of Discipline

Some of my favorite episodes in the Woody Back to School Unit stories include the tantalizing mix of prefects, punishment rooms and the extensive use of rituals.

One of the wonderful things about transitioning shorter stories into the long, sweeping saga of the Woody Back to School Unit is the opportunity to develop the back-stories of the inmates.

A number of the central characters of my stories attended the fictional Queensgate Academy in their earlier lives. This exclusive academy practiced even more elaborate punishment rituals than Woodys.

At Queensgate the Dames are far too refined to administer discipline themselves and merely inform errant’s that they intend to ‘Put them on the Menu’. Gals unfortunate enough to have their name added to the menu are required to report to the Posh HQ at six o’clock to present their defenses in front of an august body of prefects known as the ‘Posh’.

The gals are required to wait in an outside ante-room known as the Tank and are called in to the main HQ one at a time. The room is only lit by candles and the members of the Posh sit eerily hidden in the shadows waiting to pass down their judgments.

In the centre of the room there is a three feet by three feet square marked on the floor and the defendant is required to remain within the boundaries while presenting their case. At the farthest end of the room, a large padded leather armchair, shrouded in candle-light, is ominously in position. This altar of discipline is known as the ‘popping seat’.

Once correctly positioned in the defense square the defendant is approached by the Sergeant-at-Arms, a senior member of the Posh (aka as the Grim Reaper), and they are formally charged.

The defendant has several options available to her. She may plead guilty, not guilty, or offer to enter into a plea bargain. In the event that she enters either of the two latter pleas she is dismissed and sent back to wait in the Tank until further notice. Should she choose to enter a not guilty plea she is allowed two minutes to present her defense.

Once all pleas and defenses are delivered the miscreants wait in the Tank while the shadowy Posh Goddesses make their deliberations. They have a variety of disciplinary options at their disposal including tedious punishments such as writing lines or impositions, detentions, or assigning the miscreant to community service such as grubbing around in the gardens or marking out the playing fields. Alternatively they can elect to send the unfortunate young lady to the ‘popping seat’ to be ‘popped’ with the ceremonial ‘popping stick’.

Back in the Tank the nervous delinquents await the findings of the Goddesses. They pace up and down as they reconsider their defense strategies. Some will be confident that their explanations will be well-received and they will escape without punishment. Others will have accepted a plea bargain and negotiated an agreement to reduce the number of pops they will receive while bent over the popping seat and are resigned to their fate. Finally, there are, of course, the more daring coves that have risked the future of their bumbags and pleaded not guilty, relying upon their quick wits and silver tongues to avoid punishment, wondering how they will fare.

The tension in the Tank is always high. The gals avert each other’s eyes, preferring to keep their own counsel, inter-communication is strictly forbidden.

Finally the wait is over and one by one the defendants are invited back into the HQ to learn of their fates.

For simplicity let’s just say the lucky ones go first and when they exit the HQ they wear relieved, slightly smug grins on their faces.

Finally when the innocent (fortunate) have departed one-by-one the remaining inmates are summonsed back into the HQ. The sequence of their return is determined by the number of pops that they have been sentenced to receive.

The goddesses of the Posh can sentence a gal to anything from three to nine strokes of the ‘Ceremonial Popping Stick’ depending on the level of malfeasance and the terms of any plea bargains. The sentences are delivered in somber tones by the Grim Reaper.

Once a gal has been informed of her punishment the all-powerful President of Posh will step out of the shadows dressed in her ankle length embroidered, mandarin collared Posh Coat.

The unfortunate recipient of the popping will be invited to repair to the popping seat and to prepare herself for her punishment. Although the distance between the marked square they have been standing in is only two dozen strides many of the recipients have reported in their diaries that the journey felt more like two miles.

While the hapless miscreant removes her blazer and makes herself comfortable across the back of the chair the Sergeant-of-Arms will help the President of Posh out of her ceremonial coat and hand her the cane. In the flickering half-light she will be barely visible except for her crisp white blouse as she approaches the luckless victim. With the ceremonial popping stick flexed between her hands she resembles a High Priestess at her altar of discipline.

As usual I chose to weave this whole back-story around the character of poor old Debs Morton.

While attending Queensgate, Deborah is frequently ‘Put on the Menu’ and required to report to the Tank. She gains a reputation as a skilled and articulate advocate in her own defense and adamantly refuses to plead guilty to any of the many charges brought against her. However, even Debs silver-tongue cannot always save her bumbags and she was thrashed twenty-five times during her first three years at the academy.

Deborah’s fourth year at the academy was a catastrophe with her behavior spiraling out of control and she made a record-breaking number of appearances on the menu. Despite her deft defenses the odds were stacked against her and predictably she established another record receiving nineteen beatings during the period. Coincidentally the President of Posh who was responsible for administering the thrashings was Pauline Gascoigne who would later take on the character of the Economics Dame at the Woody Back to School Unit.

Towards the end of the summer she is put on the menu by three separate Dames on the same day. Boldly she persists with her strategy of pleading not guilty. At first there is a glimmer of hope that her tactic might pay off when her defense of the first charge of the day is accepted.

“Miss Morton of the Fourth, you have entered a plea of not guilty of charges of Disobedience in the Second Degree,” she is informed by the Sergeant-at-Arms. “The Posh has deliberated and your defense has been successful. The charges are dismissed.”

Deborah resists the impulse to grin.

“Miss Morton of the Fourth, you have entered a plea of not guilty of charges of Gross Insolence in the First Degree,” continued the Sergeant-at-Arms. “The Posh has deliberated and your defense has been unsuccessful. You will receive nine pops of the ceremonial popping stick.”

Deborah tries not to flinch.

“Miss Morton of the Fourth, you have entered a plea of not guilty of charges of Disrespectful Behavior in the First Degree,” said the Sergeant-at-Arms. “The Posh has deliberated and your defense has been unsuccessful. You will receive nine pops of the ceremonial popping stick.”

Debs couldn’t help but grimace at the unfortunate news.

“However, due to the severity of these punishments you will receive nine strokes this evening and then return to the HQ after a twenty-four hour cooling down period,” continued the Sergeant-at-Arms.

Deborah spends two uncomfortable sessions bent over the popping seat being thrashed for ‘serial malfeasance’, but her troubles are not over. She was summoned to the Great House for a personal interview the Grand Dame. This in itself was unprecedented. The Grand Dame lived in isolation from the main school leaving administration and discipline to the twenty-one members of the Posh.

During the interview the Grand Dame showed Debs her end of year report card. At the bottom of the card there was a section for the Grand Dame to assign a cumulative grade for academics, sporting achievement and behavior. Grading was scaled between A and E. In the first two boxes Deborah had been graded A+ for her academic work and her performance at sports. However, in the behavior box the Grand Dame had crossed through the scores and simply written DEPLORABLE in red ink.

Deborah was informed that during the forthcoming year she would be required to carry a special book with her at all times and at the end of each class she would present it to the presiding Dame to have her behavior graded. She would no longer be placed on the menu by the Dames which at least would have given her the opportunity to defend herself. Instead, she was informed, in the event that she scored three grades of C- or less during any given week she would receive a mandatory beating on Friday evening.

Foolishly Deborah continued to flirt with fate and during the first week following her return from the summer hols she accumulated three bad grades. The Grand Dame sentenced her to six strokes of the cane. In the ensuing weeks she continued to fail to meet the performance criteria and each week her punishment was increased by an additional stroke. By the end of the fourth week she was sentenced to the maximum dosage of nine strokes and was warned that she would continue to get nine until she succeeded in getting through a week with acceptable behavior grades.

The President of Posh tasked with delivering these beatings is Christy Cranfield (who is a central character in the Woody Back to School Unit saga). Christy and Debs are best chums and Christy even offers to resign her position to avoid having to cane Deborah. Debs persuades her to stay on, arguing it was much better to be thrashed by someone she trusts. Deborah’s pattern of misbehavior continues and by the time she left the academy to play on the professional tennis circuit Deborah Morton had been beaten on thirty-nine consecutive Fridays.

An examination of the national archive of the Ministry of Education dating back over one hundred and fifty years reveals that with an accumulation of eighty-three beatings Miss Deborah Morton holds the record for being caned more than any other school pupil in recorded history.

Bottoms Up! Thanks for stopping by … RH

Don’t Forget – Free Chapters of the Woody Back to School Unit spanking saga are available at the Woodettes Publications Page.