"A FRIVOLOUS CASE”

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 5

"A FRIVOLOUS CASE”

CHARGE AGAINST TEACHER.

DISMISSAL BY MAGISTRATE.

A prosecution for alleged assault, brought by the parents of a boy, aged 8 years, against a teacher at the Waihi District High School, Mollie Deverell, •was heard by Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., in the Childrens Court at Waihi on Tuesday morning. The Base was a sequel to punishment of the boy. Lengthy evidence was given. The boy concerned admitted that he had been inattentive to his lesons and that he had been rebuked on several occasions. Other witnesses gave evidence on similar tines. Classmates identified the stick al* leged to have been used—a piece of dowel* ling less than the thickness of a pencil. Some said it had been used on the legs and others on the shoulders, while other witnesses said it had been used on both.

The boy’s grandmother alleged that there were weals on the boy’s back, but Dr. L. R. Hetherington, who examined the child after the alleged offence, said he could find none and that the bruises on the boy might easily have been caused in the. normal course of games. There were no signs of weals and only slight bruises were evident. “The evidence of the boy, the evidence regarding the stick, and, above all, that of the doctor, shows that the boy was lightly punished,” said the magistrate. ‘The case fe s frivolous one and will be dismissed.”