School Paddle

This story was one my mom shared with me when I was older, and it took place shortly after my parents got married and before my oldest brother was born – probably in 1974 or 1975. My mom had been a teacher for a couple of years, and she taught 6th grade (all subjects) at a  neighbourhood school. All of the pupils lived within a 15-minute drive of the school, but most were closer than that. As a small local school, there was only one class of each grade – so , barring students moving in or out, the classes were much the same from year to year. This also meant that many of the teachers knew kids from outside of their own classes. In this particular year, my mom’s class had three girls – Carol, Laura, and Julie – who were just plain nasty; the stereotypical ‘mean girls’.  My mo...