The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-11

LANCASTER
School Committee Reinstate
Edith Whitaker.

tion torbidding the eight-year-old
daughter OF Thomas Whitaker the use
of the public school in her district, in
the northeastern part of the town OF
Lancaster, near Still river. The &C
ton has brought to the public eye an
unusual instance of heartless, brutal
and even atrocious persecution of a
girl by her schoolmates, and indirectly
by the parents of those schoolmates. 1t
must even have seemed to Edith Whit
taker that the school committee Joined
in prosecuting her, though their action
was Just protecting the majority" as
member of the committee expressed
It to a correspondent of The Spy. 1t
may seem strange that majority Of
IL OF l. strong, sturdy country boys
and girls should need to be protected
from one little girl, but the story will
lear telling. i reveals the innate saw
egery of children. and shows the aw-
full injustice that has made the life of
little girl burden for more than a
year. The facts are of especial inter-
est in the towns of Clinton, Lancaster
and Sterling. The citizens OF each of
these towns have more or less knowl-
edge of the case, but the greatest ex-
element prevails in the corner of the
town of Lancaster, in the Shoe Shank
district, where the principal actors in
the story live, and to a great extent in
Sterling, because Thomas Whitaker,
Edith Whittaller's father, gets his mail
at the Shirley Village post office, and
is as well known there as he is in Ian
caster.
The prosecution of Edith Whitaker
didn't have much prominence outside
the district until Thomas Whitaker
lost his patience and in the anger of a
man slow to wrath, gave the school
committee of Lancaster this ultima
tum:
"Reinstate my daughter. DO it
within the week, or l lay her case and
your conduct before the courts"
The week wasn't up when Mr.. Whit
taker was notified that his demand was
obeyed. The chairman Of the commit
tee said that he might send Edith to
school again on Monday-that's today.
The story gained greater prominence
when, on Saturday, it was rumored
that Mr.. Whitaker had instructed
Attorney David l. Walsh of this place
to take legal process against Thomas
A. Ryan, if that gentleman should fail
TO join in the vindication of Edith, by
denouncing the conduct of his son
Ithel or fail to abandon the attitude
he has assumed in demanding that
Edith be kept away from school,
1t was Mr.. Ryan who, with some OF
his neighbors, induced the committee
to deny Edith the school a year ago.
Mr.. Ryan was the first to withdraw
his children from the school when
Edith made the effort to return, at the
opening of the school term, three weeks
ago. 1t is against Mr.. Ryan's son
Ithel that Mr. Whitaker charges con
duct that. If proven, makes the boy
and several of his playmates amenable
to punishment
Thomas Whitaker is a retired min
lister. With his wife and son and Edith
he lives in an old-fsshioned, comfort
able frame house. about a mile from
the little brick school house to which
Edith returned today.
The trouble began something more
than a year ago when Mr.. Whitaker
family included a hired boy. one Ed
ward Young, who was tainted in his
mind. Edith was then a frail, fiaxen-
haired child of seven years. She was
exceedingly impressionable, very timid
unusually silent and without vigor to
resist aggression.
Her timidity probably arose from
the circumstances that she was an
adopted child, one taken from a found
ling asylum as an infant She was
used to being tainted by other chill
dren with singing remarks about her
having no father or mother and about
being charity child
The school that Edith attended was q
small one. The teacher was Miss Alice
M. Carroll, daughter of Seleetman A.
w. Carroll of Lancaster. Miss Carroll,
when the attendance was good, had II
pupils. -Four of these were Stanley,
Pearl, Ethel and Kate Ryan, children
of Thomas A. Ryan. Then there were
Clarence Sanderson, Arthur Durill,
Lucy Stone (the Oldest girl in SCHOOL,,
Ethel Divol ca little granddaughter of
L. T. Wood the two Spears children
and sometimes one or two others
The smaller children were PLAYING
horse at the school one September day
q year ago. Edith was playing. too
In some way, a conversation was begun
about how to play horse. and, 1t is al
legged, Edith tried to tell a new way
and things that the vicious foolish boy
IN her adopted fathers family had said
to her
Now these We're not things for chill
dren to know about, and none of the
children had any clear idea of what
Edith meant She was far too innocent
TO have any herself The other chill
oren asked questions. Lucy Stone
asked questions. She was the oldest
girl. She knew and she told her moth
er, Mrs Stone told the Ryans They
ana others went to the school commit
zee, and punishment Of Edith Whit
taker was begun.
II there is any little girl living in any
civilized community who has been pun
ished as Edith Whitaker has been for
her innocent babbling Of mysterious
"lekedness. there is no record of it.
she has been abused with threats
ana blows; she has been run down by
pleycles; she has been beaten over the
mead with baskets and dinner pals:
worst OF all, she has been subjected to
indignities more evil than those i'm
pied IN the talk Of the feeble-nfnded
BOY whose words she repeated, be-
coming thereby too sinful a creature
Tor the other children of the district to
associate with. She has been subject
ed 10 these torments by children who
We're taken out Of school that they
might not meet her
The first action of the committee in
suspending Edith, came to Mr.. Whit
takers notice in the form of a letter
equivalent to demand, saying II
would be better to withdraw her from
school for time. The COMMITTEES
then as now, was composed as follows:
Josiah Quincy. chairman, Miss
AAna Whitney, and George F.
Morse. Their action was ia
ken entirely on the repre-
sensations of the organs, the Stones
the Spears, in short, the people sending
a majority of the children to the school
Edith had no hearing. The committee
acted without light from her
However, Mr.. Whitaker thought ii
best TO obey. never dreaming that the
penalty was TO be life exclusion.
From that time Edith's life was 9
torment. # she showed her face in the
Dttle settlement near the school house o.
went abroad anywhere, she was taunt.
ed, pinched ard shamcd by the other
children. Once several Of the girls
found her walking beside the river