4 entries for Br Remi

An incident was recorded in the Manager’s diary during the mid-1970s, concerning the behaviour of Br Remi. He spent most of his teaching career working in residential schools.

The diary entry from the mid-1970s stated ‘Br Remi struck [Michael].11 deformed his teeth’. The entry the following day noted that the boy attended the dentist.

While the Visitor recorded his approval of the new, less rigid approach to controlling children as having something to recommend it, he was not nearly critical enough about Br Remi’s yearning for the ‘good old days’ of a harsher regime. Br Remi should have been left in no doubt that violence was completely unacceptable, and incidents such as that recorded in the diary should have been avoided. By the mid-1970s, there should have been a more formal procedure for recording and responding to physical abuse of children. There was no record that this incident was ever investigated, or that any disciplinary action was taken against Br Remi. Such an event, which was tantamount to criminal assault, was not considered to be sufficiently grave to warrant disciplinary action. It suggested that, notwithstanding the changes that had been effected in the regime, the underlying philosophy had not altered.

The Visitor remarked: The ending of ‘the old order’, to which Remi was accustomed for so long, has caused him some upset and paradoxically this may well be a blessing in disguise for him. He is now doing a much more taxing round of duty than was his wont for quite some years and despite his overt yearning for the good old days when boys were made toe the line in quasi-military fashion one senses that deep down he is slowly and reluctantly coming to appreciate that the new approach has something to recommen it.