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CITY OF DUBOIS 137
On the 25th of August, 1882, a corps of teachers was
elected and two new teachers were substituted for two old teachers,
viz W. S. Luther and L. S. Wright. Mr. Luther was assigned the
fourth room in the Central building and L. S. Wright No. 5 in the
West DuBois building.
The School Board at this time commenced to talk about
grading the schools and on the 12th of September, 1882, the grading
was started.
The citizens of the Borough had not become sufficiently
acclimated to not having a School Board at Luthersburg and thought
they ought to annoy the School Board by preferring charges against
the teachers for cruelty.
Be it said that these charges were promptly
investigated, and evidence was taken on both sides. The cause of the
whipping was a note written by a boy to one of the larger girls in
the school. The boy refused to disclose the contents of the note and
therefore Dr. W. J. Smathers was appointed a committee to take the
boy out and find out what was in the note. His report was that the
admissions of the boy with reference to the contents of the note was
of such character that it should not be disclosed in an open
meeting. It would seem that the language was fit for a doctor's ear,
but not for public consumption generally. The result of this
investigation was that the teacher was cleared from the charge of
cruelty, but was again admonished to use a rod not over three-eights
of an inch thick at the butt. The School Board again had trouble in
the month of March in the Third Ward where charges were preferred
against one of the women teachers for cruelty. This resulted in
another trial and it seems the President of the Board got into a
discussion with one of the persons supporting the charges and the
secretary in recording the proceedings says, "the president and
-------------- went to the mat. The president won out." The result
of this trial was that the teacher was acquitted of cruel and
barbarous treatment, but the teachers were again admonished as to
the size of the rod to be used in punishing the children.
The School Board evidently approved of the proverb,
"Spare the rod and spoil the child."
In 1882, the Legislature passed an Act enabling
boroughs with a population of 5000 to elect their own
superintendent. Prior to that the population requirement for a local
superintendent was 10,000.
An agitation was started to have a borough
superintendent of public instruction elected for the Borough of
DuBois. While the minutes of the School Board do not show that a
census was ordered, however, a census was taken in order to
establish the fact that the Borough had the requisite population.
Mr. Thomas Eagan, one of the teachers, took this census. While there
is no report filed with the School Board yet the Directors of that
time stated that such had been the case and it is the foundation of
the allegations heretofore made
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