Chapter 3: A Rule Book From the Governors

Yarra Corkle takes the bus. Since her encounter a year ago with nervous Gacka, stupid Moller, scruffy Skidmark, black-haired Norgel and their ash-blond leader Pinno, she has nearly always succeeded getting on board a crowded bus. Today, the bus is almost empty and she gets on board the articulated bus towards the front, near the driver. It’s one of the new kind that she’d seen around, but this is the first time she’s got on board one, since it’s the first time she’s seen one operate on her route, the K 44.

Yarra sits on a side-facing seat not far behind the driver and does her best to cover her hips with her school bag, since she knows she’s been attracting more attention of late.

In front of her, overhead, is a row of video display screens playing silent adverts. The first to play advertises hay fever medicine. A pot-bellied man in shorts is shown mowing a lawn. As he does so, pollen is shown being released from mown flowers, drifting over a short garden fence and entering the nose of a young woman who is sunbathing on a lounger. As she sneezes, her legs jump up in the air and for a moment we see between her legs. The pot-bellied man is looking over the fence as this happens and he leers at her, then the camera. Then the logo of the medicine comes up with the caption, Stop embarrassing sneezes - Emba-stop for Hay Fever.

A young man sits on a seat directly opposite her. He starts watching the screens above her head. The next one up is for Comfort Wear, which turns out to be for bras and knickers. Three good-looking female models are shown not just wearing these items, but pulling them on, slipping full, naked breasts inside bra cups, pulling knickers up over buttocks and even over a shaven pudenda. A graphic then shows padding inside the bra and a close-up of a gusset. The next shot shows a model from knee level, looking up between her legs as she pulls a set of knickers upwards.

As the advertisement ends with a Comfort Wear logo, the young man on the bus leers at her. She looks down, then sideways through the bus’s front window. Her school is still several stops away.

There’s an advert for breakfast cereal which only shows kids and their fully dressed mother. But the next ad is for depilation cream. Two girls are shown, side by side, one applying depilation cream to her crotch area (her legs are closed) and one shaving the same area. Shots of the two girls alternate. The girl using the depilation cream is shown with elegant lighting, in elegant poses, looking gorgeous and serene. The girl using a razor is shown in glaring light, from awkward angles, trying to shave in inelegant poses. It’s the first time they’ve had moving adverts on buses like this and it shocks Yarra just how many of them feature naked or semi-naked girls.

She’s been keeping an eye on what the television does, as she and all of her class have been advised to do by their teacher Mr Ullerade, who they were all amazed to find had moved with them from last year’s class to this year’s. All he says to the class is that he had to pull a few strings to stay with them. But she’s heard from a friend of a friend, who heard it from her teacher, that he thinks Mr Ullerade had to threaten to resign to keep them as his class this year - their next to last. And they’ve all statred asking, at one time or another, if he can stay on as their teacher next year as well. It’ll be their final year - they’ll be up to eighteen and that’s leaving age, by then - and nearly the whole class seems incredibly conscious just how lucky they’ve been with Mr Ullerade staying on, and Miss Maplum as well. Their parallel class still has Pieter Dickle - he moved up with them when Mr Ullerade moved up too - and her friend in his class, Yulla Cottle, says he just keeps getting worse and worse.

It was growing all last year, once those cameras started arriving at school and those technician men started wiring things up. That’s when their school started going downhill. Towards more, more casual, and just nastier punishments. They’d been told by Miss Maplum what she’d hear from other teaching assistants, that their one female governor, one of their town’s very few female voters, had been what they called Recalled. Enough parents of pupils had signed some kind of form. It had this special vote, and when they held it, she lost. That meant another Governor had just got voted in, then the oldest one just resigned in disgust. And that meant that another one got what Miss Maplum called co-opted in - made into a Governor without even a vote - by the new Chairman of the Governors - one who’d been on before but had taken that over when the old one resigned.

There were five of them - and the new Chairman Governor - and the two new ones in - could always win a vote now. Because they all thought the same - wanted things to get worse, in the girls school at least.

They hadn’t had School Assembly since the start of this school year. The assembly room, which had all the gym equipment in it too, had been closed off for building works since right from the start of this new school year. Closed For Building Work - Will Reopen when Complete the sign propped in front of the blanked-off glass doors said. So, as she’d been doing all last week and for the early part of this week too, she went straight to her class.

Mr Ullerade was sitting in front as normal, Miss Maplum at the back. He looked white as a sheet though. When she sat near the front - her usual desk - she could see that his fingers were subtly quaking.

“Here’s the low-down, girls - and I apologise, truly, for what I must tell you. The Government’s new law, allowing for the deregulation of Local Government Oversight for schools, was in the course of the last school year. It allowed for a change of oversight of individual schools, but did not set a timeframe. Now, in some ways, this new law is deliberately vague. And parts of it apply to - real apologies for this - to punishments, and to what has been controlled by past laws. And here’s the thing. DR passed a law which wasn’t vague. It specifically forbade a lot of very specific actions by teachers as regards allowable punishments. But this new law does the opposite. It takes those specific DR rules off the statute books. It calls this act de-regulation. Which literally means the removal of rules.”

Mr Ullerade sighed deeply. Yarra had always like how he looked. Fairly tall - freckle-faced, red haired - with quick-smiling eyes and long fingers with hands which he moved a lot to show the shapes of things he was talking about and describe their movements, like magnetic coils on electric motors or charge flows down nerve cells or the flight and anatomy of birds and bats. But those fingers were making unsure, nervous little fidgets now. Touches with their backs to his mouth. One hand half resting on the other, unable to stay still. She’d never seen him looking quite so unsettled.

“This school is ahead of schedule on these changes, as some of you already realise. The ... voters who may vote - have voted already. Several weeks ago, now, actually.”

Yarra know this means, amongst others, parents on the local Electoral Register with, specifically, daughters at this school. And maybe sons in the boys school - she’s not sure about that.

“This school has opted out. It is no longer under Local Government oversight. And the Governors have acted. Here’s the thing, girls - that law I mentioned - the one de-regulating. It listed all the things that DR forbade on the statute books and said, each of these is no longer Dogaland law. An, next - it said...”

He’s slowing down, like he doesn’t want to get to the point.

“I noted - that certain schools - the so-called Traditional Schools - had never been subject to these laws anyway. Since DR had found that part voted down when they first made the law. Private schools, private interests. Out of sight, out of mind. But this new law notes - in an addendum - that any common practice from Traditional Schools - were confirmed to not be subject to regulation either. And many people, including judges in one or two trial cases, have been taking that to mean that obscure practices used in some school or another, are therefore considered acceptable practice. In any school, including state schools, that have opted out of Local Government Oversight. Now that’s - forgive me for getting emotional here, and stating my opinion - both scandalous, and also very dangerous. And what I’m about to read to you will, I’m genuinely sorry to say, prove that point exactly.”

He pauses, hands up in front of his mouth, eyes flickering anywhere but uop at the girls.

“These new governors,” Mr Ullerade finally continues, “have delivered new guidelines, called Allowable Keenigwort Upper Girls School Punishments: Directions to Teachers, All Staff and the Head of Kennigwort Upper Girls School. From The Governors.”

And he read it out to them:

A RULE BOOK FROM THE GOVERNORS

From The Governors of Kennigwort Upper Girls School To Teachers, Ancillary Staff, The Head and all Administrators

We The Governors believe discipline within Kennigwort Upper Girls School to have become lax while the previous DR government were in power. In light of the passing of the LC Government’s Education Reform Bill, with its broad deregultion measures, we have considered its merits and have drawn up the following as guidelines for teaching, ancillary and other staff, as the new law points out that we, as governors, are allowed by majority vote to do.

1a) The standardisation of punishment protocols, whereby use of the cane and other implements was eliminated for girls under sixteen, and other such rules, are no longer in place.

1b) The restriction on time allowable for any one punishment to five minutes is no longer in place.

1c) The restriction on other punishment forms other that limited spankings for girls of fourteen and older and limited canings of girls sixteen and over is no longer in place.

2a) Use of the cane and other implements, specifically including but not limited to strap, belt, crop, tawse, ruler, wooden spoon, slipper, hairbrush and paddle are now allowable for all girls from the ages of fourteen to eighteen and above.

2b) As regards the cane, we the Governors recommend that in the most extreme circumstances, girls wearing blue uniforms may be caned by their class teachers only. Up to four strokes may be used per caning on fourteen year olds, up to five for fifteen year olds, up to six for sixteen year olds, up to eight for seventeen year olds, and up to twelve for eighteen year olds and above. These may be applied to the buttocks and thigh-backs of girls aged fourteen and fifteen, and to unspecified areas between the waist and lower thighs for girls of 16 and above.

2c) The number of strokes that we recommend to be allowable in the most extreme circumstances for strap, belt, crop, tawse, ruler, wooden spoon, slipper, hairbrush and paddle are to be the same as the cane, times 1.5 for the strap, belt, and crop. The number allowable for the paddle is to be the same as the cane times 0.75. The number allowable for the tawse is to be the same as the cane times 2. The number allowable for the wooden spoon is to be the same as the cane times 2.25. The number allowable for the hairbrush is to be the same as the cane times 2.5. The number allowable for the slipper is to be the same as the cane times 5. In all cases these are to be limited to the buttocks and thigh backs for fourteen and fifteen year olds, and to buttocks and unspecified areas between the waist and the knees for girls sixteen and over.

2d) Use of the cane or other non-bare-hand implements are recommended to be limited to no more than two separate applications in any one week for girls wearing blue uniforms, with any such punishments to be spaced at least two days apart.

2e) We the Governors recommend that, as regards the number of hand spanks allowable for all ages, it is no longer necessary to prescribe an upper limit.

2f-1) The governors recommend that class teachers may spank any of their class pupils at any time, with the reason logged to the video database. It is further recommended that class teachers may allow their assistant teachers, preferably male only, but at the discretion of the class teacher for female assistant teachers, to hand spank any of their class pupils while class is in session, preferably at the back of the classroom so as to minimise disruption to normal teaching.

2f-2) The Governors recommend that male full teachers may alert a girl’s class teacher of their wish for a spanking to be awarded to any girl wearing the standard blue school uniform. Should the girl’s teacher accede to the request, the girl’s class teacher may choose to deliver such a spanking himself. Or he may, at his discretion, choose to allow the requesting male full teacher or another male full teacher to deliver such a spanking, either with the class teacher present or without. We recommend that punishments by other full teachers may include a use of other implements only if the girl’s class teacher is actually present.

2g-1) The Governors have now made financial support available for the creation of a new class of uniform for girls. The new Yellow uniform is required (note that this is an instruction not a recommendation) to be assigned by class teachers to a minimum of six girls per class at any one time.

2g-2) Girls wearing yellow skirts indicate that their class teacher has chosen to allow, for these girls only, unspecified other male full teachers general permission to hand spank these girls at their discretion and without need to consul the girl’s class teacher. Any other male staff members are not to be allowed to spank girls wearing yellow uniforms under general circumstances, i.e. during normal school hours.

2g-3) All girls who any class teacher has picked to wear the new yellow uniforms must wear them at school at all times, uncovered by any other garment, unless having been specifically instructed to undress or wear some other form of garment. They must also wear the yellow uniforms on the way to and from school and / or for one full hour before and after school (whichever is longer) whatever the weather, with the lower part of the uniform (waist to lower thigh region) always being uncovered during the journey or for one full hour, whichever is longer. A girl’s class teacher may place any or all of his girls in this category at any time and may revoke such a placement at any time, with the proviso that a minimum of tywo girls in his class must wear yellow uniforms at school on any one school day.

2g-4) If any girl chosen to wear yellow uniform is absent at roll call on any day, another girl must be selected to take her place so that there will always be a minimum of six girls per class wearing yellow, whether or not the missing girl arrives later. Once any girl has been picked by her class teacher, for whatever reason, to wear yellow on any day, she must wear the uniform, at minimum, for one full school day and one full journey from and 5ack to school.

2g-5) Which girls are to be required to wear yellow is entirely at the discretion of their class teachers. Each class teacher may require more than six girls to wear yellow at any one time, up to and including his full class.

2h) We the Governors recommend that the placement of hand spanks should be limited to buttocks and thigh backs for fourteen and fifteen year old girls, to any areas below the waist for sixteen year olds, and are not to be restricted for seventeen year olds and above. These rules apply to whoever is delivering a hand spanking, whether it be the girl’s class teacher or another male member of staff.

2i) Punishments using a combination of implements are, on occasion, with full justification offered to the database, to be allowable, with the same restrictions as to who may award and who may deliver as hand spankings. The Governors recommend that other implements may be used in series or alternately in any combination. The Governors recommend that stroke numbers should not exceed a rough count of allowable cane strokes deliverable to specific ages times the multiplication quotient for the different implements divided by the number of implements. The Governors recognise, however, that such sums may, in the heat of the moment, not always prove simple to calculate. It is to be noted that the figures indicated are to be thought of as recommendations rather than as hard and fast rules. We note that this proviso has been approved by majority vote.

2j) We the Governors recommend that fourteen year old girls should, in general circumstances, not to be punished without a pair of knickers being present to cover their genital areas, in addition to a bra, shirt or top covering their breasts. Though we admit to some demurral amongst us, a majority of Kennigwort Upper Girls School’s Governors have voted to recommend allowing fifteen year old girls to be punished with knickers lowered or removed in cases where some extra humiliation seems appropriate to the punisher. We recommend that any or all clothing may be required to be removed during punishments of any girl aged sixteen and over during any punishment.

2k) The Governors recommend (by majority vote) that any and all girls may be punished in any position that the punisher feels appropriate.

2l) The Governors recommend (by majority vote) that restraint or punishment of girls wearing the general blue uniforms, by means of manipulating their lower undergarments, is to be allowed by class teachers only, or by a male assistant teacher with permission from the girl’s class teacher in classroom situations only. This form of punishment specifically includes the application of any from slow to abrupt upward, forward and backward movement being actioned to the undergarments. The same recommendation is, however, to be considered a general permission to other male full teachers for any girl wearing the new yellow check flared skirts, whether the girl be currently clothed or not.

2m) Vigorous exercise is to be available as an element of punishment for any girl by a class teacher. It is recommended that fourteen year old girls should, in general circumstances, be clothed in at least undergarments or shorts and by some form of top during exercise punishments. It is recommended (by majority vote) that fifteen year olds may be punished in such a manner without knickers being present. All sixteen year old girls and above may be punished in this way in any state of dress including up and including fully naked.

2n) Punishments of the kinds listed above may be conducted in class with or without other classmates or other staff members being present. It is strongly recommended that punishments as listed above should not be performed within sight of any observer standing outside of school grounds.

2o) It is recommended, after much discussion and argument, that so-called casual canings (i.e. on-the-spot canings in non-classroom situations) are to be allowed by any girl’s class teacher at any time, on school grounds only. In cases of girls wearing the new yellow uniforms, casual canings are to be allowed by any other male full staff teacher. Such casual canings for girls wearing either blue or yellow uniforms should be limited to four strokes for fourteen year olds, five for fifteen, six for sixteen, eight for seventeen and twelve for eighteen year olds and above. These must only be awarded for actual infractions of school rules, with the rationale to award always being logged on a recording device, and with both the rationale and a video recording of the punishment itself, in all cases, to be uploaded to the national Schoolgirl Punishment Database.

2p) It is recommended by majority vote, after much discussion and argument, that punishers should not feel themselves required to pay such regard to the emotional state and degree of distress of their current schoolgirl punishee as to let such regard unduly interfere with the conduct and progress of the punishment in question.

2q) All punishments, without exception, must be recorded by the best equipment and with the best lighting available, and uploaded, without exception, to the Government’s Schoolgirl Punishment Database, with all participants, time stamp, location, etc, correctly logged.

3a) It is now recommended (by majority decision for all clause 3 clauses) that class teachers may, for the first time in the history of Kennigwort Upper Girls School, choose to award girls wearing blue uniforms, or by any full teacher for girls wearing yellow uniforms, to award so-called H- punishments. These punishment types have been used in the past in some Traditional girls schools as aversion therapy for egregious, or suspected egregious, sexual misconduct. Such punishment types are suggested, by non-statutory Government recommendation, to be allowable if cleared first by department heads. In this school, class teachers are from this point on to be considered by the Governors to be the department heads of girls in individual classes.

3b-1) H- punishment sessions are allowed to be scheduled for up to one hour after normal school hours on any week night, and on any Saturday during term time only, in consecutive one hour blocks, for a maximum of up to six hours only. It is recommended that after-hours full H- punishments be administered to any student wearing the standard blue uniforms at the rate of not more than two sessions per week, which implies any two evening sessions or any one evening session and the Saturday session. If a girl wearing a blue uniform has been awarded more than two H- punishments in any one week, the second and third should be completed in the Saturday session. Any girl wearing the new yellow uniforms may be required to attend not more than three H- punishment sessions per week, with the proviso that if she has been awarded four or more H- punishments, the third and fourth should be completed in the Saturday session.

3b-2) H- punishments may be awarded to girls wearing blue skirts by their class teacher only, though other male teachers may apply to the girl’s class teacher for him to award such a punishment on their behalf.

3b-3) Girls wearing yellow skirts may be awarded one H- punishment by any full teacher at any point, with the reason for the punishment logged and recorded in the usual way. Any other male staff member (i.e. an assistant teacher or ancillary staff member) may apply to a yellow-skirted girl’s class teacher for him to award her an H- punishment, with the reason logged and recorded at the time of the offence, though it os acknowledged that the girl’s class teacher is free to refuse this request.

3b-2) H- punishments may be conducted in the school gym, the school punishment room, the staff common room, a classroom, school toilets, school corridors, the playground anywhere out of sight of the general public, or, with the permission of the governors only, in part or parts of another institution. They may NOT be conducted in public places outside of school grounds or on the grounds of another institution where they may be viewable by persons standing outside of that institution’s grounds.

3c) It is not recommended that H- punishments be conducted in front of other non-punishee girl students except with explicit permission from a Governor.

3d-1) It is recommended that H- punishments may, however, be conducted with other observers (other than non-punishee schoolgirls) present, including, with permission from a Governor, as demonstrations to non-connected visitors, i.e. to visitors with no direct relatives attending the school. H- punishments may be conducted, without need to consult a Governor, with a direct relative or relatives or guardian or direct relative of a guardian of any punishee schoolgirl present.

3d-2) The Governors recommend that any of the aforementioned specified observer or observers may be allowed to participate in H- punishments as punishers, strictly with permission from the overall supervisor of the current H- punishment.

3d-3) We the Governors recommend that the Overall Supervisor of any H- punishment should be the most senior male person present, or the longest-serving member of, in descending order of: the Headmaster or a Governor; a Main Teaching Subject Department Head; a Class teacher; any other Full Teacher; a Male Assistant Class Teacher; any other Male Assistant Teacher; a non-teaching-staff Male Head of any Ancillary Department; a non-teaching-staff other Male Member of an Ancillary Department; a Male Parent of a student being punished; a Male Direct Relative of a student being punished; any non-connected male visitor present by permission from a Governor.

3d-4) Punishment-awarding or requesting staff members may always attend the relevant H- punishment session of the award and, at the sole discretion of the session’s supervising H- punisher, may participate in the general execution of the relevant H- punishment.

3e) The Governors recommend that fourteen year olds should be clothed in at least undergarments during H- punishments. It is further recommended that fifteen year olds may be punished without knickers being present. It is recommended that girls sixteen and over may be so punished up to fully unclothed.

3f) H- punishments may include the use of implements such as canes, straps, belts, crops, tawses, rulers, wooden spoons, slippers, hairbrush backs and paddles. It is recommended that such implements should not be used in any one H- punishment (which includes any separate one-hour blocks on Saturdays) beyond the frequency recommended in paragraphs 2b, 2c, 2d and 2i above.

3g) It is recommended that H- punishments may include spankings by hand as recommended in paragraphs 2e and 2h, i.e to the buttocks and thigh backs for fourteen and fifteen year old girls, to any areas between the waist and lower thighs for sixteen year olds, and are not to be restricted for seventeen year olds and above. Hand spankings, as stated above in paragraph 2e, need not be limited by number, frequency, intensity or time.

3h) It is recommended (by majority vote) that girls undergoing H- punishments may be required to adopt any and all positions or poses that their punisher or punishers choose, without time limitation other than up to and including the full duration of the current punishment or Saturday punishment block.

3i) It is recommended (by majority vote) that girls undergoing H- punishments may be required to move, exercise, perform and repeat any and all kinetic instructions as directed, including while positioned in any pose required by their punisher or punishers, without time limit other than up to and including the full duration of the punishment or Saturday punishment block.

3j) It is recommended (by majority vote) that an H- punisher or H- punishers may be allowed to use physical force and manipulation to ensure that punishees adopt any and all positions and attitudes, movements, exercises, performances and repetitions that they the punisher may choose to specify.

3k) The Governors confirm (by majority vote) that H- punishers may control and punish punishees by means of manipulation of their lower undergarments, including by application of anywhere from slow and steady, to abrupt, strong and repeated upward, forward and / or backward movement applied to such undergarments.

3l) The Governors confirm (by majority vote following long and heated arguments) that, as allowed for in the Government’s own recommendations, unspecified unique, original and creative punishments are to be allowed during H- punishments, with the sole and strict proviso that any such punishments must not result in permanent physical harm.

3m) The Governors confirm (by majority vote, etc) that unusual punishments that are to be allowed during H- punishments may include, but are not to be limited to, the use of stinging nettles, ginger root, and other such natural stressors, with the sole, and strict, proviso that such applications must not result in permanent physical harm. Areas of usage of such unusual punishments are to be the same as in paragraphs 2e and 2h, i.e to the buttocks and thigh backs for fourteen and fifteen year old girls, to any areas between the waist and lower thighs for sixteen year olds, and are not to be limited for seventeen year olds and above, save that areas above the neck are, strictly, not to be targeted.

3n) The Governors confirm (by majority vote, etc) that unusual punishments may include a requirement for punishees to drink unspecified volumes of liquids as directed by their punisher or punishers so as to create bladder distress. The Governors also confirm that punishers may additionally forbid punishees from urinating for periods of unspecified length, including, on Saturdays, for periods longer than the one hour punishment blocks.

3o-1) The Governors recommend (by majority vote) that unusual punishments may include the application of liquid enemas comprising unspecified formulations of on-toxic liquids to fifteen year olds and above. The Governors recognise and accept that such punishments will very likely require the insertion of unspecified enema-enabling equipment into the posteriors of any girl being so punished.

30-2) It is further recommended that unusual punishments may include the prevention of expulsion of any such liquid enema by way of application of an expulsion-preventing stopper to the posterior of any girl being so punished. The Governors recognise and accept that such punishments will require the insertion of unspecified enema-expulsion-preventative equipment into the posterior of any girl being so punished. It is recommended that any such prevention be limited to not more than a full evening session and not more than one full one hour block of any Saturday session.