A teacher faces assault and confinement charges at Kaikohe Court.
A teacher faces assault and confinement charges at Kaikohe Court.
A teacher dragged a 10-year-old pupil across the floor by the hair, pulling hanks of it from the boy's skull, a jury in the Kaikohe Court has heard.
The court also heard that Hemi Epiha, a former teacher at Kura Kaupapa Maori o Whangaroa, was instructed by the school boardand its whanau committee to undergo an anger management programme and counselling.
Epiha is facing six charges of assault and two of detaining and confining pupils against their will between 2003 and 2014. Four of Epiha's ex-pupils spoke of being locked up, knocked off their seats, having chairs pulled out from under them, being hit and slammed against a wall. The trial before Judge Keith de Ridder is expected to finish today .
Yesterday's a school support worker said she once found two brothers, aged about 7 and 8, locked in a resource room Epiha called the whare herehere, or prison. She had also heard him shouting abuse at pupils.
Former principal Louisa Motu told of a meeting involving staff, whanau and board members following a letter of complaint by the father of the boy who had his hair pulled out. The father told of his son having a bruised back after Epiha pushed him off a seat on to concrete, and other incidents he called abuse. The father said he withdrew his complaint providing Epiha underwent anger management and counselling, as directed by the meeting.
The defendant's lawyer, Doug Blaikie, yesterday put it to witnesses that the boys' stories were part of a campaign "to get" the teacher by one group in a divided school.
Several times Crown prosecutor Mike Smith successfully challenged Mr Blaikie's line of questioning the witnesses about in-school policies and relationships.
Mr Blaikie argued those issues were "integral" to the trial but Mr Smith said the trial was about the treatment a teacher dished out to pupils, not school's politics.
