The staff of the school however was facing a crisis this morning. The computer was not working. The class assignments had not been printed. Teachers didn’t have their class lists. New teachers didn’t have the records of the returning students. The principle called the teachers together. She announced that the returning older students – 3^rd and 4^th grade would go to the classes that they had attended last year. New older students would be sent to the office and a counselor would help them find the right class. According to her plan, the younger students would go to the cafeteria. Each teacher would then take a section of the cafeteria to control. She would fill out a card on each one to take attendance.

When the opening bell rang, Jamie was herded in to the cafeteria with the younger students. She did manage to sit with some of her friends from last year. It was nice to see them. They all wanted to sit by her, because she was kind of a teacher’s pet, and they thought that being with her would make them look as smart as she was.

There was a new teacher in charge of Jamie’s section. Marty Highland was not only new to the school, but also new to teaching. She would have been uneasy if everything had gone the way it should have today, but under these circumstances she was panicky. She knew that it would be a challenge of all her skills to keep twenty children quiet while she asked each student for the information that she needed for attendance. She decided that the best tactic was to be authoritarian. She called for the attention of her twenty. She quickly sorted them into sections by grades. She knew that she would have to write for the Kindergarten and first grade children. She was very pleased to see that most of her group was to be second graders this year. She could get them to fill out their own cards. Ms. Highland handed them their cards and pencils to fill them out, with the stern warning to be sure and follow instructions to the letter. The first instruction was to write nothing on the card until they were told.

One of the boys put his pencil to the card. He didn’t move it or write anything, but the fledgling teacher scolded him harshly. She let the group know that any mistake would earn the student making it an immediate spanking. The students took this threat very seriously. For most it would mean a spanking at home as well.

“Now,” she spoke firmly, “write your LAST name on the first line of the card. Be very careful and write your LAST name. Follow instructions very carefully, it is very important that you write your LAST name.”

Jamie quickly followed the instruction. She neatly wrote “M – a – r – i – o – n” on the very top line of her card. She was proud of her card and hoped it would win the approval of the stern teacher.

Ms. Highland walked around very carefully inspecting the cards. She frowned at the poor penmanship of some of the students. She smiled in approval at the neat careful handwriting of other students. When Ms. Highland looked at Jamie’s card she turned purple-red with rage. She grabbed the young child out of her seat and dragged her to the head of the table. Quickly she bent her over the table and swatted her bottom very hard and fast.

Jamie was stunned by the swiftness of the action. Really it wasn’t all that hard or long a spanking. She was, however, humiliated by it. There, in front of all the class she had been spanked. And on top of the humiliation was confusion. She had no idea why she had been spanked. Her face must have been as red as her bottom.

Then Ms. Highland started grilling her. “Don’t you know how to follow instructions? Didn’t you hear the instructions? I told you to write your LAST name on the first line. Didn’t you understand the instructions?”

The tears in Jamie’s eyes rolled down and they seemed to solidify in Jamie’s throat, because all she could do was nod yes and no appropriately to the angry teacher’s questions.

Ms. Highland continued, “Now, young lady, what is your last name?”

Jamie stuttered back her answer, “M-m- Marion.”

Ms Highland became angrier, I said your LAST name…. What is your LAST name?”

“M – m – Marion,” once again Jamie stammered.

“THEN WHAT IS YOUR FIRST NAME?”

Jamie shyly said her name, “Jamie.”

Then, it was time for Marty Highland to feel like a lost and bewildered child. She turned redder this time with embarrassment as she finally realized her mistake. Ms Highland looked around the room and realized that the other teachers in the cafeteria were watching the scene. She saw their looks of horrified disapproval. She nearly fainted from the rush of intense emotion that she was feeling. Marty sat down hard. She told the confused child in front of her to go back to her seat.

Jamie went to her seat. She was quiet the rest of the day. She had a dilemma on her hands. She got a spanking at school. She got a spanking that she didn’t deserve. Daddy said that if she got a spanking at school she would get one at home. Jamie knew to tell him about today might earn her a spanking, but she got a spanking that she didn’t deserve. She needed to tell daddy, so that he could defend her. What should she do?