The lawyer for a suspended Conception Bay South elementary school principal accused of using excessive force on four students argued in provincial court Friday for access to their school files.
The information in the files is relevant to Robin McGrath’s defence, lawyer Ian Patey submitted.
McGrath, who did not appear in court for the hearing, has been charged with four counts of assault and one count of uttering threats against a number of students between Sept. 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.
McGrath was placed on leave without pay in connection with complaints made to the Newfoundland and Labrador Eastern School District and the police by concerned parents. The complaints alleged inappropriate verbal and physical interactions with students of a non-sexual nature, the school district said last year.
Patey indicated he will likely be making arguments at trial under Section 43 of the criminal code. That section states that “Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.”
Patey told Judge David Orr this case is a classic one of a school administrator involved in a physical intervention with students.
“It happens all the time,” Patey said. “I can’t imagine that Section 43 will not be on the radar when the trial gets underway. Once that’s in play, the context provided by all these documents reference what is reasonable in the circumstances.
“Context is everything on a Section 43 defence and this material defines the circumstances.”
The school files are said to include varied information, including behavioural management plans and incident reports.
Representing the parents of the students, lawyer David Power expressed concerns with the private nature of the files. The parents had agreed to give RNC investigators access to them, he said.
Patey said he believed McGrath’s right to make full answer and defence to the charge should take priority.
“The privacy rights should usurp the need to avoid convicting an innocent individual and there are mechanisms that we can use in court to mitigate (privacy issues),” he said.
Orr will render his decision on the application Jan. 15.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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Former C.B.S. principal charged with assaulting, threatening students
