THE DEBATING SOCIETY 
 
Ramona Forsyth was smartly turned out for the occasion.  
It was her turn to chair the monthly university debate, 
and she was bound to take pride in her appearance.  It 
was a convention that all students attending a meeting of 
the debating society dressed properly for the occasion 
rather than the usual denim and sweatshirt uniform, but 
when called to be a main speaker or chairperson, they 
usually made that extra effort.
 
Accordingly she wore a red jacket with matching plain red 
mini-skirt, a white blouse and black tights.  She also 
wore rather more jewellery and make-up than she would 
normally, and generally felt very proud of how she 
looked.  She had chaired one previous debate and had been 
flattered to be invited again.  Initially she had been 
especially keen on this occasion because of the topic.  
However, as the time had drawn closer, the topic had 
begun to trouble her rather more, and a part of the 
reason for the extra trouble she had taken about her 
appearance tonight had been a measure of boosting her 
self-confidence.

There was no time for nerves now.  She rapped her gavel 
smartly to subdue the murmur of conversation and then 
stood to announce the motion.

"The motion before us tonight is 'This house believes 
that it is better to be last in line than first in line 
when you are in trouble.'  I call upon Miss. Loretta Gray 
to propose the motion."

Loretta was a seasoned debater and stood up with great 
confidence and began her case.  She was a tall cool 
blonde with long straight hair.  She was wearing a grey 
trouser suit - very neatly pressed creases showing the 
trouble she too had gone to - and a pale blue blouse.

"Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, I propose the motion 
that it is better to be last in line than first in line 
when you are in trouble, and in order to illustrate my 
case I am going to tell you of an incident that I 
personally experienced a few years ago.  I was fourteen 
years old at the time and considered myself to be a young 
woman - I certainly considered myself to be too old to be 
punished by my parents like a small child.  However, they 
saw things slightly differently, perhaps because the 
incident in question involved my nine year old sister as 
well.  My parents were both doing something upstairs and 
my sister, Kathryn, and I started fighting over a trivial 
matter.  It was so trivial, that I can't even remember 
now what it was all about. Anyway she pulled my hair, I 
kicked her and it all get very violent until a stray fist 
dislodged a vase and it shattered on the floor.  We both 
froze in silence instantly."

She seemed slightly embarrassed now at the recollection 
of what was to come and nervously sipped a glass of 
water.  Ramona too was feeling a little heady and was 
glad that everyone's attention would be on Loretta right 
now.

"Well, our parents came running down to see what the 
noise was about.  My mother was really upset because the 
vase was valuable, but our father was livid.  He demanded 
to know who was responsible and when I explained the 
truth of what had happened he sent us both up to our 
bedroom straight away.  He didn't keep us waiting long 
but, as a result, his temper hadn't cooled much.  He 
started on Kathryn first - telling her that he expected 
better behaviour from her than that and she was going to 
get something she'd remember for a long time.  He didn't 
actually say that he was going to spank her so when he 
turned to me and said - 'Loretta, you disappoint me even 
more because you're supposed to have grown up too much to 
behave like that, and yet I suppose that you're too old 
for a spanking'  I saw the look of shock register on 
Kathryn's face as she realised what he intended for her.  
Neither of us had ever really been spanked and she was 
pretty scared."

She took another sip of water.

"I made the big mistake of saying that it was all 
Kathryn's fault anyway, which of course it wasn't, and he 
knew it wasn't, but he decided that I was being arrogant 
and apathetic and that I needed to be taught a lesson, so 
he had a sudden change of heart and announced that if I 
was going to behave like a child, I'd be treated like 
one.  I don't think that it registered at first what he 
meant but then he was grabbing my arm and pulling me face 
down across his lap.  He was very strong and although I 
struggled he held me tightly.  It was summer and I was 
wearing shorts, and he had no difficulty at all in 
pulling those down and taking my knickers with them.  You 
can imagine that, at the age of fourteen I was hugely 
embarrassed but the shame was as nothing compared to the 
intense stinging a moment later as he began spanking my 
bottom with his hard heavy hand.  I remember crying and 
yelling for him to stop and kicking my legs around but 
after a while it was so painful and incessant that I gave 
in and lay there blubbering like a five year old."

"That was when he paused and I felt him reach forward.  I 
had my eyes screwed up closed by now so I didn't see him 
pick up the wooden backed hairbrush from my dressing 
table, but I heard the explosive crack and felt a new 
searing pain as he brought it down firmly on my backside.  
He gave me six really blistering smacks with that before 
telling me to stand up.  I thought that things couldn't 
get any worse but I was wrong."

"He then made me go and stand in the corner of the room 
facing the wall.  I wasn't allowed to pull up my shorts 
or knickers that were hobbling me around my ankles by 
this stage and I had to put my hands on top of my head.  
Then he began to deal with Kathryn."

"She also got a bare bottom spanking - rather more than 
mine in fact - but he excused her from the hairbrush 
treatment.  I invite you to imagine yourself in my 
position at that time.  I was in real agony myself and 
wanted nothing more than to rub my sore bottom and try to 
alleviate some of the smarting.  Additionally, I had been 
grossly humiliated and the humiliation was being 
continued now as I was made to stand half naked with my 
bare bottom on show while I heard Kathryn getting her 
spanking.  I can assure this house that the ordeal of 
standing there waiting to be allowed to restore my 
dignity a little and try to massage away some of the pain 
was way and above the worst part of the whole episode.  I 
therefore move that this personal and poignant story 
illustrates precisely why it is better to be last in line 
than first in line when you are in trouble.  Please 
support the motion."

With that Loretta sat down, glad that the lighting would 
hide her blushes.  The audience, too, seemed slightly 
bemused by this startling story and there was a moment of 
silence before the traditional hand-clapping began.  It 
seemed that, for whatever reason, the elegant Miss. Gray 
had made quite an impact on her audience and was going to 
be a hard act to follow, although the motivation in the 
case of some of the male members of the audience if they 
supported her would probably owe little to the debating 
style and more to the extremely arousing thought of her 
standing in the corner with her hot little bottom on show 
while her shorts and knickers lay around her ankles.  She 
had certainly used an audacious and bold tactic and the 
result of the debate would now be very interesting 
indeed.

The applause died down and Ramona leaned towards the 
microphone.  She was feeling very hot and her voice 
wasn't too steady as she spoke.

"I now call on Miss. Shona McBryde to oppose the motion."

Everyone leaned forward in their seats as Shona took the 
platform.  At that point, common consensus would have 
been that Shona had her work cut out to follow Lorretta's 
dramatic and revealing account.  However, Shona was 
widely regarded as the man-eater of the college - a fiery 
red head who seemed to change boyfriends on a weekly 
basis and who had the looks that meant there was never a 
shortage of male interest, even if she had quite 
ruthlessly exploited so many before, and had frequently 
ridiculed past boyfriends for their lack of physical 
prowess and stamina.  The aggressive character on this 
occasion was set off by a short black leather mini skirt, 
an emerald green blouse and white stockings (and yes, the 
lads on the front row in front of the platform could 
definitely confirm that they were stockings and not 
tights).

"I am opposing the motion that this house believes that 
it is better to be last in line than first in line when 
you are in trouble.  In doing so, I too will illustrate 
from my personal experience why this motion should be 
opposed."  It was obvious to everyone that Shona had been 
forced to change her intended approach completely as she 
never glanced at her notes, although she also seemed to 
be finding some difficulty in looking straight at members 
of the audience.

"I was educated at a Roman Catholic all-girls school 
which held very strict and traditional values, and where 
disobedience to those standards was met with a 
traditional form of redress.  The particular instance I 
wish to tell you about happened when I was fifteen years 
old.  We were due to play hockey that afternoon, and a 
small group of us intensely disliked the game at the best 
of times.  The wind and rain on this day made it far from 
that situation.  We had no choice so we went along and 
got changed with everyone else, but once the teacher had 
gone out on to the field we deliberately lingered about 
getting ready until everyone else had gone.  We knew that 
the teacher was a bit batty and would never notice that 
four of us hadn't made it out on to the field so we 
settled down in a corner of the changing rooms and I 
produced a magazine from my bag that I had stolen from my 
elder sister.  Without going into much detail, I shall 
say that this was an adult oriented magazine with a lot 
of colour photographs of naked men."

There was some muttered reaction from the audience at 
this point - it certainly seemed in character for Shona 
to be smuggling pornographic magazines into a Roman 
Catholic school.

"Well, there was a lot of chatter and laughter and as a 
result we didn't hear Sister Roberts coming in, and to 
cut a long story short, ten minutes later we were in the 
headmistress's office looking rather more crestfallen.  
She asked whose magazine it was and I admitted that it 
was mine.  We all knew that we were in big trouble, and 
she would have found out sooner or later so it seemed 
best to come clean.  She gave us all a very stern lecture 
on sin."  (There was some laughter from the audience at 
this point).  "Then she told us that we would all be 
caned.  It wasn't very surprising, although none of us 
had actually been caned before.  The teachers all used 
either a strap or slipper in the classroom and it was 
generally the rule that if you did anything bad enough to 
be sent to the headmistress, then a caning was 
inevitable.  She also told us that if any of us were ever 
found with such a magazine again, we would be given a 
public caning.  These were very rare - perhaps only once 
or twice a year, when a girl would be caned in front of 
the assembly of all the school including the teachers.  
Such canings were carried out by Father O'Toole and were 
universally feared."

"Then she said that we would each get six strokes of the 
cane across our bottoms which was scary enough, but then 
she turned to me and said that, because it was my 
magazine, I would get a more severe punishment after the 
others.  She didn't say what it was to be and I was 
frightened to death - I could well believe that I was 
actually going to get a public caning this time.  Anyway, 
she wasted no more time on me there and then.  She opened 
a cupboard and took out the cane she intended to use.  It 
was a pale coloured rattan cane with a traditional curved 
handle which looked quite light, but also appeared very 
whippy as she flexed it between her hands in an 
intimidating way."

"She told the first girl to go to the middle of the room 
and to touch her toes.  Obviously frightened, she did so.  
School tradition was that for a caning on your bottom, 
your skirt was always hitched up and turned back, but 
that was hardly necessary given that we were all wearing 
our short games skirts anyway.  She made quite a 
theatrical event out of it, waiting a long time between 
each stroke and whipping it down from a considerable 
height and with amazing accuracy into the dead centre of 
Christine's knickers.  I noticed that when Christine was 
finally allowed to stand up with tears streaming down her 
face, the other two girls were already crying and found 
that I was as well.  For fully ten minutes I had to 
endure the awful agony of watching my friends being caned 
in the knowledge that, sooner or later, it would be my 
turn.  Even if I had only had to face the same as them it 
would have been torture to watch the obviously agonising 
ordeal for each girl, but I had the added worry of this 
threat of a more serious punishment."

"Finally the time came - there were three snivelling 
girls standing on the other side of the room wiping the 
tears from their faces with the backs of their hands and 
probably desperate to rub their bottoms but well aware 
that etiquette prohibited such immodesty.  I was told to 
come to the middle of the room and to touch my toes.  I 
still had no idea what my extra was to be, but in a way, 
I was glad that the waiting was over.  I had some doubts 
as to whether I should be glad or not when the first 
sizzling stroke landed, and by the second I thought my 
bottom must be cut in half.  Somehow I managed to keep in 
position for the full six and then waited to hear the 
instruction that I could stand.  Instead, Sister O'Conner 
told me that I was to recive one extra stroke for 
bringing the magazine into school.  I tensed waiting for 
it but there was a delay and I heard the cane clatter 
down on her desktop.  Curious as to the delay, I didn't 
have to wait long to find the reason.  She stepped up 
behind me and in one swift movement pulled my knickers 
down to my knees.  The sensation of cool air on my hot 
smarting bottom was odd, but I was also very embarrassed 
at having her see my bare bottom like that."

"She was clearly going to make sure I really remembered 
this experience for a long time.  She picked up the cane 
again and lined it up on my bottom.  The thin bamboo was 
cold to the touch but pressed against the very sore area 
that she had already inflamed, it was certainly not 
comforting.  Then she lifted her arm and I heard a 
whistle before it cracked loudly across the target.  I 
swear she used more force on that one stroke than on the 
other six put together, and I couldn't stop myself from 
yelling out."

"Then I was allowed to stand with the others while she 
made an entry for all of us in the official school 
punishment book.  By the time that was done, I had 
recovered enough to be able to listen to what she said 
although I couldn't imagine sitting down for a week.  She 
told us that we had all behaved disgracefully, and as an 
additional punishment we would all be in detention after 
school on the next Thursday, and that I would be in 
detention the week after that as well.  Finally I was 
allowed to pull up my knickers and we all paraded out of 
the office."

"Looking back, I don't think any of us got more severely 
punished that we would have expected although it was 
quite awful at the time.  Nevertheless, the thing I 
remember most, the thing I will always remember most, was 
the waiting and the having to watch everyone else getting 
punished first.  I may not have been transformed into an 
angel overnight, but I made very sure I never got sent to 
Sister O'Conner again.  I therefore conclude that 
actually being first in line is sometimes better than 
being last when you are in trouble and I urge you to 
oppose the motion."

There was tumultuous applause as Shona took her seat and 
that gave Ramona a few seconds to try to control her own 
voice before she opened the debate to the floor.  The 
debate from the floor was particularly poor although 
there were a couple of brave souls who also related brief 
anecdotes of times they had been in trouble, but more of 
the time the male members of the audience made pointless 
remarks just as a vehicle to allow them to refer to 
either Shona's or Lorretta's story.

Finally, Ramona decided to move to the vote and, for 
once, she felt relieved to be on the platform in the 
chair as this excused her from voting.  A show of hands 
was too close to call, so she organised tellers and took 
the vote again.  Finally a piece of paper was handed to 
her with the official count.  Her hands shook visibly as 
she read it, and her voice was more quivery than ever.

"In support of the motion, 56 votes.  Against the motion, 
56 votes..."

Pandemonium - clapping and cheering broke out all around.  
She clicked the microphone off for a second or two, glad 
of the respite, but all too aware that she would now have 
to use her casting vote, and very publicly choose a side.  
Ridiculous, she told herself, the audience will never 
know why - they'll assume I'm voting on the standard of 
the arguments.

"I cast my vote..... against the motion.  The motion is 
defeated."  The pandemonium intensified.

***

Walking back to the halls of residence with her 
boyfriend, Ramona was annoyed that he wanted to keep on 
talking about the debate and especially about the two 
opening addresses.  But she was more perturbed when he 
moved to the subject of her voting against the motion.

"I was surprised - I thought Lorretta's case was better 
argued and you've never liked Shona either.  What made 
you vote against?"

"You're obviously forgetting that Shona wasn't the only 
one to go to a Catholic school aren't you."  she snapped, 
instantly regretting what she had said and what it 
implied.  He was silent in thought for a while as he 
thought through the ramifications.  Then his hand slipped 
down from around her waist to rest on the back of her red 
miniskirt where he could feel the shape of her buttocks 
as she walked.

"I think there's something you'd better be telling me 
when we get back to your room...." he said.