Headmaster: Well... Well... Well, it's all got to do with the library, you see. We've had a lot of trouble recently with boys taking out library books without library cards. Your son was caught, and I administered a beating, during which he died. But you'll be glad to know... You'll be glad to know that the ringleader was caught, so I don't think we'll be having any trouble with library discipline. You see, the library card system...

Mr Perkins: I'm sorry...

Headmaster: ...was...

Mr Perkins: You beat my son to death?

Headmaster: Yes, yes, so it would seem. Please, I'm not used to being interrupted. You see, the library card system was introduced...

Mr Perkins: Well, exactly what happened?

Headmaster: Well, apparently, boys were just slipping into the library and taking the books!

Mr Perkins: No, during the beating!

This website purposefully breaks itself when it detects ad blocking, so I won't be reading the article

I got off easy. My grade 2 teacher smacked my hand with a ruler because I had the “devil” in me. I was left handed. All hell broke loose when my mom found out.

Clearly overblown. This isn't like a lethal or dangerous shock he used, some of the students in the class went on it for fun. The article says it's just enough to cause a tingling sensation. This whole thing was sent to the media by one parent throwing a tantrum.

Jesus.

TL;DR 100 years ago, some teacher built what amounted to a chair version of one of those novelty shockers you’d buy at Spencer’s, had a kid sit in it when he was bad, and a parent got upset about it