I only got caned once, for throwing margarine in the face of some cretin who absolutely deserved it. Hurt like hell, so if margarine needed throwing after that, it got done when there weren't any teachers around.
On a more serious note, I don't know how teachers and classroom assistants function in the climate of mistrust and suspicion that surround adults near children today. First, you have to prove you're not a paedophile, then you're expected to exist as some sort of unfeeling robot that cannot react to whatever level of insult the little darlings decide to expose you to, all for the annual remuneration that a professional footballer would blow at the bookies in a week.
Like most of the adult population, I don't want to see children come to any harm, but any adult in a child supervisory capacity seems to be caught up in a maelstrom of neurotic panic surrounding their suitability. I feel we live in a nanny state anyway, but this witch hunt surrounding adults near children is nauseatingly bizarre, big time.