A reader brought this story to my attention and asked why an assault charge could not be laid.
I suspect the argument would be that the teacher's aide was acting in the place of the parent and had the authority to cut the child's hair; moreover, the action was taken in good faith.
Not knowing the facts I cannot say if a charge would sensible.
Certainly, the action shows tremendous insensitivity.
That said, the public comments by some that if a white child had his hair cut in the same way charges would have been laid seem wrong to me. In fact, if a white child had his hair cut this way, while still grossly insensitive, I don't imagine there'd be any significant news coverage -- it would be a trivial incident of, at most, local concern. But since the act may speak to a wider failure of understanding between First Nations and the borader community, it is a matter of interest and charges would seem to be more, rather than less, likely.
Teaching aide suspended over hair cut
By SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN
Friday, May 22, 2009
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A Lakehead Public Schools board employee has been suspended and a family has hired a lawyer after their seven-year-old son‘s hair was cut while he was at school.
The mother reported the incident to police shortly after the incident on April 16, Thunder Bay Police spokesman Chris Adams said Thursday.
Police interviewed the aboriginal boy, his mother, the McKellar Park school principal and the teaching assistant, and then consulted with the Crown‘s office about laying an assault charge, Adams said.
David MacKenzie, an assistant Crown attorney, said the decision to not lay an assault charge was made with strict accordance to Crown policy.
That policy outlines the need for both a reasonable prospect of conviction and a public interest before a charge is laid.
2 comments:
First off all - this eas a Teacher's Aide - (the word Aide should give us some indication that she was there to assist the child). The child was receiving assistance in reading (Hello people...assistance in reading)..and his longish hair was in his face hindering his reading - where was the mother - does she not have a responsiblity to pin the child's hair back before he goes to school (so that he can see the pages to read)...No it's easier to hang someone out to dry for a lack of judgement (the TA was probably tired of the child complaining that he could not see) - we have only heard one side - if the mother was sending the child to school and he had a TA for reading she must have known his long, long bangs were a hinderance - get a pin, pin it back before he goes to school - The parents need to take some responsibilty here too
I can understand the difficulty in determining if there was any race bias in this instance. What I do not understand is the inability to see the very apparent gender bias.
As Anonymous so rightly pointed out, a simple solution to the problem of hair obstructing one's view would have been to pin it back. I have no doubt that had the subject been female, such would have been the course chosen by the teacher's aide. If not, had the subject been female, there would have been no question of whether or not assault charges were warranted.
I thank Anonymous for their opinion, and I would join them in their criticism of the parents' neglect had the parents been informed of the encumbrance the hair presented. Evidently however, they were not informed, nor could the actual instructor have been consulted prior to the action being taken. From other readings, I'm taken to understand that the aide acted on her own, in private, without even informing the child of what was to occur, or why.
Of further interest is the claim that the parents had spoken to the same teacher's aide earlier in the year when she had teased(!) the boy's older brother about his hair. It was explained to her then that the boys were growing their hair to participate in ceremonial dances.
Personally, I'm a little stunned that the woman was even offered an explanation. Why couldn't the boy's hair just be long, and that be the end of it? Or are teacher's aides given license to taunt? Do they tease the fat kids, and the ones whose mother's dress them funny as well?
We don't accept bullying from students, and particularly if there was this prior history, there can be no doubt that the act was nothing short of bullying, so why are we accepting it from a teacher's aide? Afterall, even if she was well meaning, didn't we just apologise and compensate for the damage imposed by well-meaning residential schools?
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