Evil weirdo playgroup leaders
Miss Price.

To a small group of boys from a certain junior school in Hereford, that name will make them shiver.

Miss Price wasn't weird, she was evil to the core. I know that everyone says "Oh we had, evil/weird/mad teachers, you had to be there etc, etc". Miss Price really was bad, bad, bad. On reading Watership Down and coming across the character General Woundwort, I instantly saw the similarity.

Miss Price was one of Satan's handmaidens and she *hated* boys. I mean really, really hated boys. Obviously that's why she chose to work in an all boys junior school (how does that work?).

She was in charge of playground discipline (so far so normal) and yes, everyone resents or respects those that disciplined them in childhood. She just took it that bit further; one way she humiliated children was her control of access to toilets - you had to ask permission, sometimes she would decide that you had to wait for ten minutes - not because there was anyone else in the toilet, just because I think she got a sick pleasure from watching small boys squirm (literally). This sometimes resulted in boys wetting themselves, that's the level she took it to.

She also cultivated her pets, other boys that she would trust to roam around the playground, particularly any area that she couldn't see, and report any wrongdoing back to her. She would then send her pet back over with orders to the malefactor to report to her, you then had to stand next to her, not speaking to anyone for the rest of the breaktime.

Thing is, it was mostly a pretty well behaved school and wrongdoing in her eyes often had no or very thin justification. I got told off once for jumping up and down. I was at the other end of the playground, on my own. I was being a Pirate Captain, I can remember that I was shouting "Get back to your cabins you scurvy dogs!" at no-one in particular. That resulted in one of Miss Price's pets (Paul W*r*ll. You w*nker) coming over and saying "I think you should stop that, Miss Price wouldn't like it!" I think I responded with "Avast you landlubber!" (I really liked pirate movies). So Paul waddled over on his little fat legs to report to his mistress. Sure enough, he was soon panting his way back over with orders for me to report for discipline. That's how it worked.

That's why her 'pets' were also tainted by association with her, even into secondary school. So that's why certain kids from our school like Paul were hated for the rest of their school life.

I and a friend were talking to a girl we knew years later and she was really upset. "What's wrong?" we asked. She was upset because her old Guide leader had died. She was apparently this really nice lady called Miss Price. The same Miss Price.

Our friend couldn't understand our shouts of "YES!" and handslaps etc at this news. That's because the Miss Price who hated boys and lived her life to make theirs a misery, was really nice to girls. Very attentive. Know what I mean? So that's what "embittered old repressed provincial lesbian with a man hating complex" means.

I'll never understand why people who don't like children choose to work with them. I don't like children all that much which is why I chose not to teach as a career.
(Wascally Weasel now with 100% fewer jokes., Tue 15 Nov 2005, 10:37, Reply)