At least you can say you lived in interesting times.

Principal is whipped to punish two teens
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News
November 13, 2004

WASILLA -- Matanuska Christian School's principal has been fired and a teacher has quit over a disciplinary incident in which the principal had himself whipped in front of two students.

Principal Steve Unfreid, who said he was inspired in his choice of disciplinary tactics by the actions of Jesus, asked teacher Joe Brost to whip him in front of two male students in the school's basement last month after the boys were caught kissing girls in the locker room for the second time in a week.

Unfreid, in an interview Friday at his home, acknowledged he should have called the boys' parents first but expressed no regret for his behavior.

The school's board of directors unanimously decided in a closed door session Sunday to fire Unfreid.

Brost resigned Monday night at a crowded meeting in the school's chapel. He did not want to comment for this story.

Roughly 120 students now attend the Palmer school. About 20 students have left in the incident's aftermath, school officials said. It could not be learned whether the departing youths were motivated to leave by their support of Unfreid.

In a letter sent to the school's board Wednesday, Unfreid said he would not fight his dismissal. He also apologized for "outbursts at the school board meeting" on Monday.

Unfreid violated school policy by not notifying parents before going ahead with discipline, particularly with "anything that unusual," school board president and acting administrator Scott Richardson said Friday.

The decision to take the boys' punishment on himself showed a form of Christianity that was too radical for some members of the school community, Unfreid said, sitting cross-legged on a leather couch in his Wasilla living room Friday afternoon.

Since coming to the school as a teacher several years ago, he said, he pushed for the school to admit a married student, laid on hands in an effort to heal a girl basketball player's injured ankle, and has taken troubled students into his family's home.

"The vision I had is the love of God can change everything," Unfreid said.

When the two seniors, 17 and 18, got caught kissing girls in front of younger students in late October, Unfreid said that while contemplating what discipline to hand out, he woke at 3 a.m. and prayed how to avoid expelling them. He said that was when he remembered years ago he had cured his son of chronic lying by telling his son to hit him with a wooden ladle instead of spanking the youngster. ...

It's hard to know what to say about this. On the one hand, there's the self-imposed flagellation of a religious nutjob. On the other hand...dammit. Okay. There's basically just the self-imposed. Flogging.

I have to say, honestly? I'm all for it.

[Via Gilliard]