TEACHER'S DISMISSAL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1929, Page 15

TEACHER'S DISMISSAL

APPELLANT'S EVIDENCE

TWO WITNESSES VOLUNTEER

Evidence in support of iiis appeal against his dismissal by the Wellington Education Board was given by Ernest Marryatt, late headmaster of the Tipper Hutt State School, to-day before the Teachers' Appeal Board—Messrs. E. Page, S.M. (chairman), T. C. A. Hislop (representative of the Education Board), and N. A. Foden (representative of the New Zealand Educational Institute).

Mr. H. A. Parkinson (secretary to the New Zealand Educational Institute) appeared as advocate for the appellant, and Mr. T. Forsyth (chairman) represented the Education Board.

When the hearing reopened, Mr. Parkinson stated that on reading, or hearing read, the reports in the papers, two children had voluntarily come forward to say that certain statements made were not true.

Violet Bennett, aged 12, a pupil in Standard V. at the Upper Hutt School, said that she saw Fred Anderson trip up Nola Weale. Mr. Maryatt told him to go into the elassrom, and Anderson did. He was not dragged in. She saw no struggle, but Anderson and "the headmaster were standing by the table together. Then Mr. Marryatt got the strap out of his cupboard and strapped him. Anderson refused to hold out his hand at first, but afterwards did so. She only saw him give Anderson one cut with, the strap. She thought Anderson went out of the room afterwards with Mr. Maryatt. There was nothing to prevent her seeing everything that happened.

To Mr. Forsyth: She had seen Margaret Gray and some other girls strapped. Margaret Gray was not strapped very often. She did not hoar Mr. Marryatt use any rough language to the class on the breaking-up day. To Mr. Hislop: Her father read the paper to her last night, and she told him that some of the statements were not true. That was what led to her coming to give evidence.

Alee Allan (14), another sth Standard pupil, said that Mr. Marryatt strapped Anderson four times for tripping Nola Wealc. Then •Anderson tried to hit him, and Mr. Marryatt, in self-defence, put him on the floor, and held him there with his hands. The struggle lasted about five minutes, then Mr. Marryatt pulled Anderson up and took him to his office.

To Mr. Forsyth: He saw Mr. Marryatt with the strap in his hand. He took the strap from his pocket. A number of the boys had been strapped. He himself had been strapped pretty often. Some of the- girls had been strapped, including Margaret Grey. She had been strapped several times. NO "ATMOSPHERE OF FEAR." Elvira Peart, a teacher at the Upper Hutt School up to February last, said that she had written Mr. Marryatt expressing her confidence in him. She had not signed the letter from members of the staff, but she agreed with all of it. In her opinion the charges of undue severity and violence were unjustified. She could not agree that he was a man of a hasty and passionate nature, and that there was, as alleged, an atmosphere of fear in the school. Mr. Marryatt was sympathetic and helpful to the staff. She had had fourteen or fifteen years' experience as a teacher!. To Mr. Forsyth: She could not speak as to anything that took place since February last. In Standard 4, she had had occasion to punish Fred Anderson. He was rather troublesome. THE HEADMASTER'S STORY; Ernest Marryatt stated that he had been thirty years in the teaching profession, and had been a headmaster for twenty-four years. For three years of that time he was an organising teacher, and for nine years was in charge of a "model school" in the Normal School at Dunedin, and had over 500 pupils through his hands in that period. Till he cauie to the Wellington district he did not know what it was to have his conduct of his schools condemned. He was appointed headmaster of the Upper Hutt School, then in Grade 5, in September, 1922. The school grew rapidly, and in 1925 rose to Grade 6. The school population from Maori Bank to the Taita Gorge had grown from 400 to approximately 800. He was promoted with the growth of* the school, and regarded that as an expression of confidence in him as a teacher. A serious problem that he was faced with at the school up to the beginning of 1929 was overcrowding and understanding. He was under the necessity of accommodating six standard classes in five rooms. In one room, 30ft x 24ft, he had' at times from 40 up to as many as 90 pupils. The overflow had to be accommodated in any building that could be got, the nearest'being half a mile and the furthest one and a half miles away. When Miss Peart left at the end of February another teacher, who came from a .junior high school, was appointed, and ho put her to teach Standard 5. He xeeeived peremptory instructions, however, from, the head inspector to put her in charge of Standard 2. He loyally obeyed that instruction, though technically, as a headmaster, he had a right to adhere to the organisation he had. proposed. The result was to increase the difficulties of his organisation. He asked for additional assistance, but it was not granted. In February last three grading marks were taken from him, one for personality and two for organisation. He appealed on the ground that the report on which that was done was unfair, in that it said that there was "avoidable disharmony between the headmaster and members of the staff," and the mark for personality was restored to him. THE FLOWER-MONITOR INCIDENT He denied any undue severity to the boy Hereock. He had strapped Nola Weale for being in the school before 9 a.m. one day. "When she saw him she Tan. out into the porch, and as he had frequently had to order her and other children out of the corridor in that way, he took it that, as she ran away, she had a guilty conscience. He did not remember her trying to explain that she was a flower-monitor. He did not kick open the office door. It was difficult to open, and he might have thrust it open with his knee, but there was no kicking of the door open. Miss Brown told him the next day that she had appointed Nola Weale flower-monitor, and he said he was sorry he had made a mistake. When on a later occasion he reprimanded her for turning round and talking, she pertly answered back, as she frequently did, saying, sharply: "I was not talking." He then told her that turning round was as bad as talking, and that she must not presume on her father being a member of the school committee; she would not get any special consideration on that account. Some time before he had had occasion to go to her home to tell her parents of her propensity to talk back, and her parents reprimanded her and told her she must desist from that practice.

Yesterday's proceedings arc reported on page 20.