The Teachers’ Criminal Liability

By Ben Ijeoma Adigwe, Esq

A certain secondary school teacher, in fact the vice principal (administration) of his school, was arrested by the police. This was predicated on his disciplining one of his students—a certain Miss Joy—who was an SS1 student of the school.

The teacher was admitted to bail and subsequently charged to court on 12 March 2004 in charge no. MI/8c/2004, Commissioner of Police v. Isichei. He was charged with unlawful assault on the student by beating her with strokes of cane and also for slapping her on the face, which caused her bodily harm, an offence contrary to Section 355 of the criminal code.

The victim of the alleged offense—Miss Joy—testified at the trial that the teacher at the assembly ground canned her with a stick, gripped her collar, blew her and slapped her all because she refused to pay the interhouse sport’s levy. She said she was subsequently treated at the hospital. However, the doctor who treated her at the hospital testified under cross-examination that he saw some vague tenderness on her flanks, which was mild and not as serious as she tried to present.

The teacher, in his testimony, replied that on the day in question, he asked the student to kneel down at the assembly ground because she was wearing the wrong uniform. She refused to kneel down, based on which he now flogged her with a cane and not a stick like she claimed. He said further that she was once seen wearing the same wrong uniform and had been warned about it. He denied slapping her and said that the issue was not associated with inter-house sport’s levy as he was not the bursar of the school. This he solemnly swore was the sole issue that transpired on that day at the school, even as the victim’s mom came to the school premises livid and promising to “teach the teacher a big lesson.”

At the conclusion of evidence in that case, which yours truly defended, the issues were narrowed down to what the scope of a teacher’s authority to discipline a student under Nigerian was. It was submitted that Section 253 of the criminal code exempts in effect an assault that was authorized, justified or excused by law from constituting an offence. Furthermore, it was submitted that Section 295(4) of the same criminal code states that a schoolteacher is presumed to have been delegated the right by the parents of a child to correct the child/student by a blow or other force that is not a wound or a grievous harm and, as such, is justified. Even King Solomon, who had a reputation for possessing uncommon wisdom, was reported to have said in the Holy Writ (Proverbs 23:13) thus: “withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.” This was commended to the court with the observation that it even permits us to beat with a rod, yet we are now being tried for beating this student with a mere cane!

In conclusion, it was forcefully submitted that divine and profane literature, sacred and secular pronouncements, all permitted the teacher to discipline the student with a cane, as he did in this case at hand. We had the mandates of God and man to do what we did. The court was therefore urged to discharge and acquit the teacher turned accused. In its judgment, the court found as a fact that the teacher merely flogged the student and did not slap and blow her. It held that this flogging was authorized, justified and excused by law under Sections 253 and 295(4) of the criminal code. The teacher turned accused was therefore discharged and acquitted on the one-count charge.

The courtroom was always packed full with members of the local branch of the Nigerian union of teachers and fellow teachers who watched proceedings with rapt attention and who were no doubt hugely relieved by the judgment, which found their member not guilty as charged. It was a case where “much stress was relieved” and “a difficulty smoothened,” to use the words of John W. Davies, President of an American Bar Association, when he gave a speech describing graphically the work of a lawyer as follows: “We build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no empires. We paint no pictures; there is little of all we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties. We relieve stress, we correct mistakes, we take up other men’s burden and by our efforts, we make possible the peaceful life of men.”

P.S: The author is well aware of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), along with other international instruments condemning corporal punishment and the moves world over to proselytize nations. The above reflects, generally, the interpretation of the existing law on corporal punishment in Nigeria and some arguments to justify it.

This article is written in commemoration of World Teachers Day, October 5th.

Ben Ijeoma Adigwe, Esq., benadigwe1@gmail.com, +2348034917063

Adigwe is the Director of the Department of Law Review, Research, Reporting and Publication in the Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Delta State. He has a certificate in Child Protection: Children’s Rights in Theory and Practice from HarvardX, an initiative of Harvard University.

Source: thenigerialawyer