A Northland teacher will have to wait another month to find out whether a kidnapping charge against him has been dropped.
The teacher faces five charges of assaulting a child and one of kidnapping.
The kidnapping charge stems from a complaint that an unruly boy was detained in a resource room, known to pupils as "the jail room", until the school bus arrived to take him home. The teacher and the school have interim name suppression.
When the case was last called, on January 27, lawyer Doug Blaikie urged Judge Keith de Ridder to throw out the kidnapping charge.
Mr Blaikie argued the boy was in the lawful custody of the school, as required under the Education Act, so he could not have been unlawfully detained or kidnapped.
Prosecutor Richard Annandale, however, said the teacher's actions went beyond society's normal expectations.
Judge de Ridder was to have released his decision when the case was called in the Kaikohe District Court this week.
However, with a different judge on duty and Judge de Ridder unavailable, the hearing was put off until March 24.
A jury trial is due to begin on July 20. The four complainants, all pupils at the school at the time, are expected to give evidence by CCTV.