KBGS Old Boys' Forum

A place to discuss Keighley Boys' Grammar School. 


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KBGS Old Boys' Forum
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Bullying

I've just been listening to Woman's Hour, as one does, and overheard a discussion on bullying. Most comments referred to the school situation. That didn't go on in the halcyon days at KBGS, did it? There were teachers there to stop it, weren't there? My recall needs refreshing.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Re: Bullying

So far there have been 20 viewings - and no comment. Smells like a cover-up. For goodness sake, lads, this is not Eton. The government (or its opposition) will not fall.Come clean with your detail, if you can. But does this silence mean there really was a mafia at work? That 40/50/60 years on the wounds and deals are still real? That horses heads will appear on pillows? How innocent I must have been.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Re: Bullying

Bullying or indoctrination ??
( FIRST DAY at KBGS-- Head down the toilet bowl and chain pulled, school cap/satchel "stolen", etc. etc.)
Happy to say it never happened to me !!
WHY ??
I was accompanied to school on that first day by a "boy" from the next street.
George D. Feather
Once the rest of school were aware of my having a "minder", the threat of retribution was enough to dissuade bullying !!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950-55

Current location (optional) KEIGHLEY

Re: Bullying

My memories are that it was the teachers who were responsible for the bullying!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 60-64

Current location (optional) Keighley

Re: Bullying

Two points on this. Firstly, Terry asks what's going on with 20 viewings and no comments. I often scan the site, so no doubt I'm registered as a viewing, but if I've no comment to make or it's full of mathematical jargon which I don't understand (thank you Beaky Birch for your rubbish input), I simply pass on. I am also aware that there are plenty of KBGS "voyeurs" who look at the site full of nostalgia, but won't contribute. What are they afraid of? Perhaps it's the occasional pieces of retaliation from the regulars?

Regarding the bullies, I always thought that the place survived on different levels of bullying. Any general pupil bully was either dealt with by a prefect at a higher level of bullying or, as Steve says, by the ultimate bully at the top of the stack - the master. This is not a comment in the negative, because at least the little gits were kept in line and I'm sure it was salutary. I well remember the prefects dishing it out in the tunnel as we came in from break. We were supposed to be orderly, but of course there was always some wag trying to trip a first former on the corner by the stairs. No-one complained if a prefect lashed out - that's just how it was.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-63

Current location (optional) Exeter, Devon

Re: Bullying

I think we need to differentiate here between "Bullying " and "Discipline" . The former being bullying between peers which was often cruel and causd distress to the recipient , the latter often warranted by the need to keep the little sods in order.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Re: Bullying

Complete tosh ! 'the latter often warranted by the need to keep the little sods in order.'
The bullying was dealt out by the 'masters', both verbally and physically, even when 'the little sods' were in order !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 60-64

Current location (optional) Keighley

Re: Bullying

I'm with David and Mike on this one, accepting "keep" as the key word here. We've all seen at first hand (both in schools and society in general) the futility of trying to restore order, once lost.
David makes a valid point, in my view, about the advantages of disciplinary strata in well-structured organisations, even though I (presumably as one among many) disliked it and held its exponents in contempt at the time.
That said, I'm not suggesting that all were equally effective or that the most brutal of them achieved the most on our behalf.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Re: Bullying

Bullying went on by the odd master and prefect. Physical bullying was administered mainly by two masters, Braithwaite and Brown. Both were objectionable characters. Hind was a different fish, his bullying was of the psychological kind. Not until many years later did I realise what an objectionable person he was. Most prefects were responsible individuals but one or two took advantage of their new found power. I was once dragged in front of the Prefects' meeting and beaten by the head prefect. I took great delight years later when I saw that he had been sent down for theft. I suppose that makes me as bad as him. For all that went on I do not think that it affected me to the extent that it appears to affect the children of today. Discipline never hurt anyone and much that is attributed to bullying now was accepted in the time that I attended KBGS.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1949 - 54

Current location (optional) Bingley