SANCTIONS AND DISCIPLINE IN GCI

"Boys must be boys, and a little chastisement does them no harm..."

So went the line as the fictional Sweeney Todd, spoke dismissively of his harsh treatment of Tobias Rag in the December 1967 school play production "Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Living in London today, where children run riot as a matter of course, it feels like GCI was many light years ahead, in its disciplinary regime.

I vividly remember one of our teachers, Mr. Adelaja ("young Ade") tell one of our mates in class: "I met your father over the weekend and he encouraged me to cane you seriously if you ever took the slightest step out of line". What of the dreaded "ditę" (detention). Come Monday morning and the dite list would be announced by the Head of School. If you had dite, you were sentenced to at least three hours of hard labour in the hands of Mallam Garba, the dreaded Sergeant Major and trainer of the Cadet Unit. Mallam would stand at the school compound end of a tall bush of lemon grass, collect the steel sheet cutlass of the offending brat, throw the same as far as he could muster, with arms stretched at right angles (the left hand pointing at the cutlass and the right to infinity), informing the offender to cut from this point to your cutlass" and then all the way to an invisible boundary. This was a job that would see you fully engaged for upwards of six hours excluding lunch time. It is double punishment if it was the first Saturday of the month, an open day, and you lost the opportunity to go out to town no Kingsway dough nuts, no new comics: a rather devastating punishment

The organised disciplinary regime consisted of:

House punishment - Only given on House grounds by House prefects for infringement of House rules. The offender would do at least one hour of labour cutting grass, cleaning, or washing the stinking corrugated tin, hole-in-the-ground "bush latrine with the attendant risk of encountering "Paddyman Joe" the dreaded imaginary ghost nobody had ever seen.

"On Your Table� - Punishment at House assembly or during "prep* or homework revision study time, in which any random senior could punish a junior by subjecting them to a show of shame, standing on the table around which all others were seated and reading. This also included the parallel "stand on your locker" in the bedroom. All these were liberally inflicted by all and sundry on the new Form 1 or Form 2 boy.

"Kneel down there"- "What is my name?" Silence! "You don't know my name? Just kneel down there" or "Go and get me a bucket of water." Fag, fag, fag!. "What took you so long? Just kneel down there".

Confiscation - As part of the preparation for the mandatory House test four weeks after resumption, you learnt the definition of confiscation - "confiscation is the seizure of articles lying fallow"-which could include your grub, like gari, or malted milk biscuit or cabin biscuit which are just "lying Fallow" in your locker, whenever a "rogue" senior wanted some.

School punishment - given on school grounds for minor infringements, like littering, crossing of lawns, noise in classroom, etc. Three school punishments would carn you an automatic detention.

Detention - This punishment was reserved for more serious infringements like absence from class, poor conduct in class or lateness, or as lawyers are wont to say, whatever the teacher felt was serious infringement. Three detentions in one school term earned a visit to the Principal's office on Sunday evening, after dinner, for caning (tanning).

Caning - On Sunday evening after dinner, the Principal could delegate that function to the Head of School or Mr. A. S. Emordi (aka "ASE pako") who would heartily and gingerly rise to the occasion saying: "give me timber, preferably Obechie, make I embellish you're bottom�, ASE would then diligently administer some good strokes of the cane on your backside. A few times, DJ would deliver the punishment himself. Word had it that DJ was gentler and if you were really distressed after receiving the strokes, he would calm and comfort you with a biscuit and a cuppa. Caning was the add-on punishment for receiving three detentions in any school term. Of course, the House masters also had the prerogative to use the cane, if they felt the situation warranted it.

Suspension - This happens when you "bolt" to Scala at Sabo and JB got wind that a few of his boys had left school to go and watch a film, or worse still, attend meeting at Chrisbo Hotel, Odo Ona. These were serious offences for which one could get thrown out of school temporarily - Suspension,

Expulsion - Very rarely applied. I can't remember any case in our time.

Looking back, though we enjoyed our stay in GCI, we endured the junior days and became seniors. This was a natural cycle of life. Physically, little harm was done, although some situations were extreme and wicked, like being made to kneel for five hours, or to kneel or walk on your knees on gravel poured on concrete floor. When old boy Chief J.B.O. Ojo, became Principal, complaints from junior boys to their parents who knew JB prompted an investigation. The responses were investigated and this led to the suspension of the more serious abusers and bullies, Caning as the third tier of punishment (after school punishment and detention) was substituted for Suspension which was used more liberally. But as the saying goes "Spare the rod and spoil the child" meant we were being prepared for the tough and harsh life in the larger outside world and it has stood a good number of us in good stead.

By: Adeloye Oluwole