Show I MCOYS PUNISHMENT RECORD Principal Explains Circumstances In the Previous Cases Since the Mulhall issue has arisen Principal McCoy has been accused of administering extremely severe corporal cor-poral punishment while he was connected con-nected with the Sumner school in April 1S94 The case referred to was one herein a boy named Steve Hays had assaulted Ills teacher in the presence of other pupils badly scratching her hands with his fingernails The case was fully investigated before a committee com-mittee of the board of education The testimony of a number of chil dren was to the effect that the principal princi-pal had struck the boy over the head with a stick and put his foot on him Their testimony was of a most lurid character as taken before the board and as was shown by Mr McCoys defense de-fense contained many gross misstatements misstate-ments The evidence of the prosecuting prosecut-ing witnesses was to a degree conflicting conflict-ing while 11 McCoys witnesses it was shown were in I better position to view the actual circumstances of the punishment and were for the greater part experienced teachers In the school In his defense addressed to the committee com-mittee at that time he said that four of the witnesses who appeared against him were from families prejudiced be valise nf liMMnf to nay linpR for dam aged books Thn ieofn other boys he recognized as having been called into the office for violating the rules and some were close friends of the Hays boy whose friendship he believed be-lieved had led them to overstate the case caseMiss Allen one of the teachers testified titled that she stood where no one was between the principal and the boy and herself and rebutted the testimony of one boy that young Hays was tram pled upon or hit over the head or choked or thrown on the floor Mr McCoy made a complete denial of all allegations of brutality and explained plained his position to the committee who reture the following communication communi-cation Salt Lake City Utah April 7 1S94 W J McCoy Esq Principal Sumner School Dear Sir1n the matter of punishment punish-ment of Steven Hays by you the committee com-mittee on teachers and school work have this to say after full investigation investiga-tion of the facts and giving them careful care-ful consideration We believe the boy deserved punishment to the extent of whipping if that was necessary to make him obey the rules of the school and Instructions of the teacher But we must condemn the manner and place of punishment You ought not to have put your foot on the boy you ought not to have struck him with a stick of any size In the presence of the school and you ought not afterwards to have administered corporal punishment punish-ment in the corridor or In the hearing of the scholars you ought not in the hearing of the school to have called to the teacher to bring you the largest stick I stickBy reference to handbook of rules you will observe that you have vio ated rules Xo 9 and 10 under duty of teachers The committee is of opinion that corporal punishment ought not to be administered only as a last resort and then after school has been dismissed and the other scholars have left the building and never when a teacher is angry angryWe We are sorry to be unable to endorse your conduct in this matter but the committee Is unanimous In the opinions we have before expressed and we hope we will never again have occasion to disagree with your management of the school Of course you will understand that the committee stands by you in the maintenance of discipline thorough and complete but neither you nor the committee has any power to go further fur-ther than the rules allow The conclusions of the committee herein conveyed are for yourself only and will not be communicated to Mr lays JJr anyone else save the superintendent superin-tendent Very truly yours CHARLES BALDWIN Chairman Mr McCoys friends are not backward bacK-ward in expressing themselves rela the to the last paragraph of the above They claim that the present board is not acting a did that of 1894 in keepIng keep-Ing matters to themselves I has been stated that Mr Mulhall is placing some dependence on a letter sent to him by the hoard written by the acting superintendent su-perintendent as a basis for his threatened threat-ened damage suit It is said to have contained some very direct assertions < < I r d > quite unjustified and the reason for such bias if the claim be true they assign to the principals unwillingness to place his resignation at the boards disposal Prof McCoys Comment Commenting upon the above letter last night Mr McCoy said The chief 1 part of the censure seems to b not upon the severity of the case but the i punishment being administered in public pub-lic As to this I may say that I struck the boy with a pussywillow twig u das d-as a baton in singing class to emphasize empha-size the fact that he must keep still The real punishment took place in the office and was witnessed by one teacher who was present and possibly by a fe v pupils from the outside However I do not see that this has any bearing on the Mulhall case and am surprised that it should have been brought up I am glad to say that the same board practically exonerated me in the former case by promoting me to I the principalshlp of the Oquirrh at a higher salary a few months later This fact I hope should l satisfy the doubts 1 of any as to the enormity of the crime Letter From Millspaugh Upon another occasion Mr McCoy received a letter from Dr Millspaugh suggesting that his discipline was perhaps per-haps too stringent at times the provocation provo-cation being a complaint from the father of a boy that had been fined for I damage to a book and had not seen the book The reason was that at the time of his demand all had been stored away for the vacation months In the same letter the principal was congratulated congrat-ulated upon the good work being done at theOquirrh school It has also been claimed that Mr McCoy Mc-Coy had received instructions from the superintendent not to resort to corporal cor-poral punishment The following a sample of more than a dozen like notes during the past two years speaks for itselfMr McCoy Please administer corporal cor-poral punishment to for presenting you a forged excuse and for inducing another boy to prepare the same Then have him make up all the time that has been lost Will you kindly preserve the excuse given you Signed gen J H MILLSPAUGH A second reads Mr McCoy I send back to you My understanding of the case is that he was the more blameworthy boy especially es-pecially as he refused to stop fighting when told to do so by a man I therefore there-fore give Ray no choice but to receive corporal punishment at your hands corpra Signe J H M |