Old Sun Classroom

I am now going to talk about how I was severely beaten by the teacher. His name was Mr. Montgomery.

When I started school, he hardly taught us most of the time. In the mornings he taught just for a little bit, the rest of the afternoon we just played. In the summertime he would take us outside, we would walk out into a field. He would bring a big pot, they poured juice into it and sandwiches. The boys carried the juice and we would start walking out into the field towards Suzy’s Slough, not too far from there. It was there we would sit and we just played, then about 3 o’clock we would start back, back to the school, into our class. After that school was over.

When I went to class that one afternoon, Mr. Montgomery told me to stand up so I stood up. There was a word, I did not know how to say the word. He was telling me to say the word and that I was not too smart. I didn’t even know how to say the word… then he got really mad, and he slammed the stick on the desk. I jumped at how scared I was, that was after I sat back down. He was telling to say that word. The rest of the students didn’t talk, they just sat there looking at us. He kept telling me over again to “say that word,” but I didn’t talk. Then he hit me with that stick, they call them pointer sticks, they’re long and fat and skinny long ways. He hit me with it on my arm and I thought, “there he finished hitting me.” But he hit me again on the same arm, and then, one after the other one, he kept on hitting me and then my back.

I don’t know how many times he hit me with the stick on my back. He still kept telling me… and the boys were making shushing for him to leave me alone, he didn’t care. He treated me like… I don’t what came over him, why he beat me so severely. So after that when I started going back I was crying and I showed the supervisor my arms. She said “what happened” and I told her “Mr. Montgomery was hitting me with a stick and that stick broke on me.” My arms were all bruised up and my back. The supervisor was checking me out and she told me, “what happened?” I told her “Mr. Montgomery was hitting me with that stick.” She was so shocked.

The next thing I knew they took me out of the playroom, they brought me into the dining room and after I also showed the lady my back. I don’t remember who was our supervisor was at the time, I showed her my back. They brought me to that dining room, they brought in Mr. Starr. He looked at my back and my arms. He was really mad and he just walked out. I don’t know what happened after that. They brought me to the dorm and put me to bed. I couldn’t lie on my back because of my back and how he beat me so severely. Then the police came, they were checking me and looking at my arms and back. Then after that… I don’t remember what happened. He never came back, after the school was out. I think it was in May when this happened. Then the next month it was summer holidays but he never came back, they had to let him go cause of what he did.

– Rosemary Red Gun

Notes:

Oral interview with Rosemary Red Gun. Conducted, translated, and transcribed by Gwendora Bear Chief. Old Sun Community College, March 11, 2022.