SCHOOLMASTER FINED.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2450, 15 March 1909, Page 2

SCHOOLMASTER FINED.

FOR- MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL DAMAGE TO A PUPIL.

The Dijon Court of Appeal gave on December 29 last their decision in a case Avhicli had created extraordinary interest in the district. A teacher of the local communal school, named Morizot, was proceeded against by M. Girodet, father of one of his pupils, for having, in- a mixed class of children, given utterance to anti-religious, antipatriotic, and grossly immoral teaching. The defendant, in- addressing his pupils during school hours, is said to haA T c described the French army as a band of ruffians, to have contended that the Germans were right in killing off during the Avar in 1870 French infants in their cradles, and to have characterised those aa'lio belieA'ed in God as being little better than fools, adding tiiat the only t-ruo God was a well-filled purse. Morizot’s doctrine on the moral question is unfit for publication in an Englisli ncAvspaper. The injured father -first thought to liaA r e this amazing teacher of tlie young punished by administrative chiefs, but the authorities of Public Instruction turned a deaf ear to his demand for redress, and he thereupon decided to take legal proceedings. M. Girotlet accordingly entered an action, claiming £BO by Avay of moral and intellectual damages for the Avrong done his son —a lad of tender years—by this pernicious teaching. The Tribunal who heard the case showed itself unsmypathetic. In an sloquent speech the AvOeat, replying to the Minister of Justice, warned the co'urt of the danger Avhicli might result if AA'hat he termed “reactionary parents” Avere allowed to interfere Avith the teaching given in French schools. The Court decided that it Avas incompetent to hear the action, and said that The defendant’s utterances were, after all, merely a matter of opinion, and that the case was one for the education authorities themselves to settle. Tlio Prefect of the 'Department also intervened, and took these views. An appeal Avas lodged, and again t-lie father was beaten, but at last, in desperation, he took the case before the Tribunal dcs Conflicts. This body, after ordering an inquiry with a vieAV to ascertaining if the charges were well founded, sent the case back to the Court of Appeal, Avith orders to adjudicate upon it. Here'tlie whole case Avas heard from the beginning. The Court found tho charges proved, but reduced the damagbs to £8 and -costs. The President rofused to order the insertion oi the judgment in the newspapers, on the ground that it Avould be giving to the offence a penal aspect which it did not deserve. "