Milton School Principal Faces Trial for Brutal Whipping
A fifteen-year-old student was reportedly struck with an iron stove poker, leading her father to press charges against the school administrator.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Charles N. Stutsman, principal of the Milton public school, is on trial before Justice Graham on the charge of having brutally whipped Mabel Long, a fifteen-year-old pupil, with an iron poker. The complaint charging Stutsman with beating the girl was sworn to by Thomas Long, father of the girl. According to the father, the principal seized her because she had broken some minor rule and, in a fit of rage, struck her several blows with the stove poker he happened to have in his hand. The father testified that the marks and bruises were still on the girl's body, despite the incident occurring earlier in the week.
“In a fit of rage he struck her several blows with the stove poker which he happened to have in his hand.”
Corporal punishment in schools remained legal in many districts for decades after this incident, though it is now widely banned. The 1909 context reflects a time when authority figures faced little oversight, a stark contrast to modern child protection standards.
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