Providential Escape From Tanning

This incident happened in my second year. The convention was that for every three school punishment, you qualified for one detention. Both school punishment and detention involved manual labour to be done by the offender. For school punishment, you were free after undertaking the manual labour meted by the school authority.

For detention, after carrying out the manual labour, you were detained (not locked up) at the school office until 6.00pm in the evening. If you got three detentions, you qualified for the Sunday evening flogging (a.k.a. ‘tanning’) by the Principal, Mr. D.J. Bullock, in his office after supper.

I had piled up three detentions already and after serving the third on a Saturday, I went into serious prayers to save my backside because I was sure I could not escape the Sunday evening tanning. As usual after Sunday supper, names of those who had qualified for the Sunday evening tanning were reeled out by the Head of School. We headed for the Principal’s Office. One after the other, we were called in to receive our just dessert.

By the time it was my turn, I was so scared that I was sweating profusely…enveloped by fear and trepidation. When I got inside, instead of asking me to “bend over, my boy” D.J. Bullock just told me to sit down. In very stern language, he warned me to be of good behavior. He also said that the next time I qualified for the exercise, he would not only flog me, he would report me to my father. Then, he told me to go and I was greatly relieved.

Needless to say that I made conscious efforts not to get into serious trouble thereafter.

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ADEREMI Bowofade
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