''A Thunder Bay woman is demanding an explanation after a teacher's aide at her son's school cut his long hair — an action her lawyer says is clearly assault while the Crown insists there are no grounds for charges. [...]
The seven-year-old boy had chin-length hair before the incident last month. His mother said staff at McKellar Park Central Public School were aware her son was letting his hair grow so that he could take part in traditional First Nations dancing.
The mother told CBC News she was stunned when her son told her it was a teacher's assistant who lopped off 10 centimetres of his hair.
"I said, 'Why did she do this? Did she say anything?'" said the mother. "And he said, 'No, and after she cut my hair, she took me by the shoulders and forced me to stand in front of the mirror. She made me stand there and said look at you now.'"
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A teacher's aide in Thunder Bay, Ont., who last month cut the bangs of a First Nations student and was subsequently suspended, will not face charges, the region's acting Crown attorney said.
"Based on standing Crown policy, it was determined that this act was not criminal, per se," David MacKenzie said Friday, adding there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and that it was not in the public interest to proceed in court.
"This lies at the heart of the sense of First Nations that, when we speak of public interest, they are not included in that public," said Julian Falconer, the family's lawyer.
MacKenzie said the incident occurred on April 16 when a teacher's aide, who thought the seven-year-old student was having trouble reading because his bangs were in his eyes, "apparently removed him from the classroom and trimmed the bangs sufficient so he could see what he was reading. . . . There was no suggestion of any racial implications. There was nothing sinister about it."
"When a child is in any way physically approached by an adult, without consent, the suggestion of a failure to fight off the adult as an explanation for not prosecuting, is absurd," said Falconer.
"The law is very clear in this area," said Falconer, "The removal of hair, without consent, is an assault."
"If a First Nations teacher had taken the same actions with a non-native child, there would have been a swift and strong response," Falconer said. "The Crown attorney wouldn't be confused about the definition of consent and those non-native children would have been deemed worthy of protection.
"The message here is that First Nations children are somehow less worthy of protection than non-native children."
Falconer says the family feels betrayed by both the police and the Crown attorney.
The school board would not say how long the suspension would last.
Falconer said the parents had come to the school in the fall after the same teacher's aide ridiculed their older son, who also keeps his hair long. They explained that the boys wear their hair long in order to participate in ceremonial First Nations' dancing.
MacKenzie was not aware that the family already had spoken to the teacher's assistant, but confirmed that she has been suspended.
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