--------------------------------
Editor notes. January appears to have been a relatively quiet month for the school, Cook’s diary records no major incidents, and his entries show a school slowly returning the new academic term after the Christmas break. However, it was perhaps only a matter of time before something happened to upset the always-fragile balance between peace and anarchy. In the meanwhile, Cook’s diary records a series of vignettes for the month of February and of course his ongoing war of attrition with his opposite number…
Cook's diary continues...
Word reaches me via the every reliable Gaynesford grapevine that Steve has been caught writing on one of the desks in the green room. It would seem that Pat Graham wandered in and caught Steve as they say “bang to rights.” What followed was verbal dressing down and of course Steve reacted in the time-honoured fashion and immediately resigned!
Clearly in the grip of some mania the deputy head summoned the sixth form and demanded to a show of hand of any pupils who had also written on desks. The result may have surprised her. Fourteen out of the sixteen she had rounded up, freely admitted to putting pen to wood. The two exceptions were Piner (who would never do that sort of thing) and Nick Rowe who showed every indication of not being able to write.
Graham harangued the sixth form about their behaviour and of course they reacted in the same fashion as Steve, and resigned.
Editors note. Graham’s fury at discovering that Johnson was writing on a desk is puzzling. In Gaynesford every available surface was covered in graffiti. The musings of Cook, Powell and Johnson may have been graffiti, but they were at least spelled correctly and didn’t consist of the word “fuck” repeated over and over again. Clearly the news that the sixth form had gone on strike reached Helen Orme we found this copy of a note Orme's papers.
Confidential Notes on a meeting with Patricia Graham. 6/1/80Pictures
Mrs Graham informed me that she had seen fit to reprimand Stephen Johnson regarding some graffiti on a desk in one of the classrooms. She expressed puzzlement as to why I wanted to speak to her about this. I asked if she was aware that in support of the deputy head boy the majority of the sixth form had resigned their positions as prefects.
Mrs Graham said that it would be not be a problem to replace them with some fifth years who, she assured me, would understand the responsibilities of the position. It was clear to me that my deputy had missed a number of fundamental points. I explained thatMrs Graham seemed to be confused about this and explained that it was her duty to ensure that good order was maintained in the school, she also pointed out that she was responsible for the administration of the prefects in the school. I concurred and suggested that the governors would be interested in her views probably both in detail and in writing.
- the resignation of practically every member of the sixth would require some explanation to the governors who would undoubtedly express their concerns about this.
- They would require a details about how this event came to pass and what steps if any had been taken to avoid the issue.
Mrs Graham took my point immediately and pointed out that while there could be no question of blackmail, she would be happy to countenance other measures and perhaps I might have some views on the subject that could assist.
I concurred that blackmail in any form could not be considered and went on to say that since the issue was graffito, then it could be dealt with by removing the offending article and a line drawn under the whole sorry affair.
Mrs Graham reiterated that there could be no question of blackmail and said that she would inform Cook and Piner that an arrangement had been reached. Johnson would remove the offending graffiti, or at least as much as possible although we agreed that he could do little more than use a plane to remove the words always assuming that such an item was available and Johnson was not too busy with his studies to do this, this would have to be Johnson's decision. Mrs Graham agreed and we both were clear that there was no question of blackmail. (1)
Helen Orme, Headmistress
1. (L-R) Mark Powell, Lee Burrowes and Ron Cook - note the hair styles which even for the time could not be considered fashionable.
(1) School governors were in part appointed from the local political parties and often saw their job as being as difficult as possible especially if they represented the opposing political group. This could and would include calling for the sacking of any member of staff they felt was incompetent. This was seldom achieved but created lots of unpleasant paper work and did little for the reputation and employability of that staff member. Patricia Graham clearly held hopes of being a headmistress at some point in her career and what Orme was saying in the code of the time was that following this course of action with the sixth would probably be the death of her aspirations.
No comments:
Post a Comment