AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
A national school principal has denied assaulting one of his students saying he was only trying to guide him to his classroom, and to protect him.
The principal, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, denies a charge of assaulting the then nine-year-old boy, who has Asperger's syndrome.
Today was day two of the trial.
Two women, who were visiting the school, told the district court that they witnessed the defendant dragging a child across the school yard. The child was shouting for help.
One of them claimed she saw the principal catch the boy by the shoulders and hit him off a wall in the classroom, shouting at him that he had enough of him.
Both women said they were very upset by the incident and one of them rang the gardai.
The principal was suspended in June 2014 pending an investigation into the claim.
He said he had taken hold of the child to bring him from a potential danger to a classroom for his own safety but denied assaulting him.
He said he caught him first by the arm and then by the arm and shoulder as he was concerned the boy would run as he had run away before.
He claimed the boy put up extreme resistance and shouted at him that this "is a concentration camp, this is torture, this is child cruelty".
He denied kicking the boy's legs going across the yard, and pinning him in the corner of the classroom with his hand to the boy's head.
He admitted telling the child that he was sick of him behaving like this.
He told the court that when the child arrived into school in the morning there were regularly "unbelievable outbursts of physicality", but the child would always settle down. He said he had to restrain him on up to nine occasions.
The court heard details of minutes from a board of management meeting held prior to the disputed incident where it was noted that the principal said the parents had given him permission to physically restrain the boy.
The child's mother told the court that she had never given him permission to restrain her child.
The defendant denied he told the school secretary afterwards that he had lost it.
Judgment in the case was reserved until next Monday.
SOURCE: http://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2016/0308/773501-assault-court/
A national school principal has denied assaulting one of his students saying he was only trying to guide him to his classroom, and to protect him.
The principal, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, denies a charge of assaulting the then nine-year-old boy, who has Asperger's syndrome.
Today was day two of the trial.
Two women, who were visiting the school, told the district court that they witnessed the defendant dragging a child across the school yard. The child was shouting for help.
One of them claimed she saw the principal catch the boy by the shoulders and hit him off a wall in the classroom, shouting at him that he had enough of him.
Both women said they were very upset by the incident and one of them rang the gardai.
The principal was suspended in June 2014 pending an investigation into the claim.
He said he had taken hold of the child to bring him from a potential danger to a classroom for his own safety but denied assaulting him.
He said he caught him first by the arm and then by the arm and shoulder as he was concerned the boy would run as he had run away before.
He claimed the boy put up extreme resistance and shouted at him that this "is a concentration camp, this is torture, this is child cruelty".
He denied kicking the boy's legs going across the yard, and pinning him in the corner of the classroom with his hand to the boy's head.
He admitted telling the child that he was sick of him behaving like this.
He told the court that when the child arrived into school in the morning there were regularly "unbelievable outbursts of physicality", but the child would always settle down. He said he had to restrain him on up to nine occasions.
The court heard details of minutes from a board of management meeting held prior to the disputed incident where it was noted that the principal said the parents had given him permission to physically restrain the boy.
The child's mother told the court that she had never given him permission to restrain her child.
The defendant denied he told the school secretary afterwards that he had lost it.
Judgment in the case was reserved until next Monday.
SOURCE: http://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2016/0308/773501-assault-court/
