SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST A SCHOOL BOARD TEACHER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 433, 10 February 1875, Page 3

SERIOUS CHARGE AGAINST A SCHOOL BOARD TEACHER.

On November 24th, Mr. Humphreys held an inquest at the Peacock Tavern, Cambridge Heath, into the circumstances attending the death of Mary Ann Dowsett, aged four and a half years, who was alleged to have been frightened to death through being placed in a cupboard at the Globe-street Board School, Bothnal Green. Jane Sarah Dowsett, the wife of a dyer living at 2, Sugarloaf Court, Cambridge Road, stated that on the afternoon of the 19th October, deceased, her daughter, came home from school very excited, and said that she had been locked up in a dark cupboard by the teacher. She remained ill until Friday last, when she died, her last words being, " Mother, they did drag me off the gallery, and put me in the cupboard. This she repeated several times during her illness. Ann Dowsett, aged seven, said that a little girl came and told her that her sister was in the cupboard. She went and fetched her out ; she was crying bitterly. She said that teacher Nelly had placed her there. The cupboard was dark and had no window in it. There was a lock to the door, but it was not fastened. Nelly West, sixteen, pupil teacher, deposed to having between thirty and forty little girls under her charge. On the day alluded to deceased was very unruly in class, and would not attend to her lessons, and in punishment was made to stand up in the gallery at the end of the room. She did not place her in a cupboard, or even threaten that she would do so, neither did she know who placed her in one. The door was kept open all day, and there was no button 1 to it, the head governess keeping all the keys. Several of the jury here cross-examined the witness, who fell in a fainting fit into the doctor's arms, and was carried out of court. Eliza Goodman, nineteen. Blackstock Road, Hackey, head governess, said it was impossible to put a child four years old in the cupboard, except it was placed in a sitting posture. The jury here went to the school, and viewed the cupboard ; when, on their return, they expressed an opinion that shelves had recently been placed there, and they had no reason to doubt the description the witness Ann Dowsett gave of the way she found her sister. The mother of the deceased said that previous to the fright her child had never had a day's illness. Dr. Latham stated that deceased died on Thursday from Gastric fever ; a shock or a fright would aggravate an existing or an impending illness. The jury returned a verdict " That the deceased died from gastric fever, accelerated by fright, through being put into a cupboard at the school ; and the said jurors farther say that the pupil-teacher is too young to have the power of punishing children."