Carolyn Roy Cope (’68) was featured recently in this NBC San Diego news article/video on the Encinitas Historical Society’s walking tour.
In the image to the right, she’s holding something a few of you may remember: the principal’s paddle! She points out that the names of paddling recipients are written on the back.
In the book “The History of San Dieguito Union High School District”, author Robert Williamson tells us a bit more of how those names came to be on the paddle in 1954, when Mr. Matthew Korwin was principal:
Mr. Korwin had an interesting way of reassuring the students being spanked that he had no personal animosity toward them. He allowed them to sign the paddle. At the end of the school year, there would be a drawing in which the names of all the students who had been spanked had been placed. The student whose name had been drawn was given the chance to give Mr. Korwin a swat with the paddle in front of all the students at the last student assembly of the year. The students really enjoyed this, especially the one wielding the paddle.”Page 54, “The History of San Dieguito Union High School District”, by Robert Williamson