CHARGE AGAINST SCHOOLMASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1920, Page 7

CHARGE AGAINST SCHOOLMASTER.

ALLEGED ASSAULT. CASE DISMISSED. Br Telegraph.—Press Association. Dannerirke, Nov. 19. A case in which a pupil of the local High School proceeded against a junior master for alleged assault was ventilated in the Magistrate's Court yesterday before Mr. S. L. P. Free, S.M. The plaintiff was David James Cullinane, and the defendant Donald Kennedy. Briefly the facts showed that plaintiff and another scholar met defendant in town, and neither lifted their caps to him. Next day at school they were called out by him for punishment. Culhnanc declined to bend into position to receive punishment and alleged that when attempting to leave the room he was seized by Kennedy and given ten strokes in all with a supplejack. A doctor, called for complainant, said an examination showed several bruises which were, he considered, unduly severe, and on an improper part of the body, though they were not likely to prove a permanent injury. Defendant stated that he had been invested by the principal of the school with powers of punishment to maintain discipline. The punishment administered was for insubordination, and the original offence had not yet been punished. > Other evidence having been heard, his Worship said that under the law the teacher had the right to punish a pupil for offences against the rules, so long as the punishment was reasonable. It might have been better had Kennedy referred the matter to the principal. Under the circumstances he did not consider the punishment excessive and dismissed the ease.