Toronto school principal found not guilty of assaulting student
The charge had stemmed from an incident in the playground at Chester Elementary School, when principal Sean Hume tried to intervene as a nine-year-old with behavioural issues was throwing objects and screaming.
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Sean Hume so relieved that this is over and eager to get back to work, lawyer says
Posted: Dec 29, 2020 7:36 PM ET | Last Updated: December 30, 2020
Sean Hume, who was the principal of Chester Elementary School in Toronto, was found not guilty of assaulting a student back in Sept. 2018. The judge accepted Hume s testimony that he was trying to help the nine-year-old child by attempting to restrain him when verbal de-escalation tactics didn t work. (Facebook )
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A Toronto judge has cleared an elementary-school principal two years after he was charged with criminal assault for restraining a nine-year-old boy who was having “a complete meltdown” in a schoolyard.
Finding that the boy had been kicking, spitting and lashing out during a lunchtime break, Justice Steven Clark of the Ontario Court of Justice rejected arguments from Crown prosecutors who contended that the principal acted too aggressively to neutralize him.