GIRL’S CLAIM FAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1078, 16 September 1930, Page 7

GIRL’S CLAIM FAILS

HEADMASTER SUED AFTER INCIDENT AT SCHOOL Press Association | PUPIL SEARCHED BY TEACHER STRATFORD, Today. j Judgment was given for defendant in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday in claims for damages made by Thelma Cuff, a minor, against A. H. R. Amess, principal of the Stratford Technical High School, and Winifred Knight, a teacher at the school. The claims arose from an incident at the school in the course of an inquiry regarding a reported theft of money from the cloakroom. One claim was against Mr. Amess for slander, consisting of words alleged to have been used to Miss Knight in ordering her to search plaintiff and two other girls. The court held that the use of the words complained of had not been proved and that on the words actually used the required proof of special damage had not been given. No definite charge of theft had been made. The other claim was for assault against Mr. Amess and Miss Knight arising out of the search of plaintiff's person. Giving judgment. Mr. R. W Tate, S.M., said that as regarded the action for assault, unlawful search would no doubt generally be an assault, but this assault was not unlawful and in any case was conducted by consent. The action of the plaintiff in making no protest but offering her coat and then herself for Miss Knight’s examination was a consent, though words of consent were not expressly used. She acted wisely because even if she had protested the headmaster could still have had her searched, for he was in loco parentis. A father would be guilty of assault for outrageous or cruel conduct, but not for the application of reasonable force for the maintenance of domestic discipline. “I do not think that a schoolmaster fulfills his duty," said Mr. Tate, “who, invested with the delegated authority of a parent, teaches his pupils the subjects in the syllabus and takes no interest in their moral welfare. When a theft occurs in a school a circumstance arises demanding investigation not only for the correction of the erring child but for the exculpation of the innocent. Occurrences of theft in a school, if left uninvestigated, would tend to destroy the moral of the school and blunt the moral perception of bath the innocent and the guilty. I cannot find ground for adverse criticism of Mr. Amess’s action."