KEY POINTS:
Teachers risk being prosecuted for assault if they force students to write lines or go on detention now the anti-smacking law is in effect, says the head of an education consultancy.
Michael Drake, director of the Wycliffe Christian Schools consultancy, wrote to about 20 schools last week warning of the potential fallout.
But education officials, lawyers and politicians have hit out at his claim.
Mr Drake, also principal of Auckland Christian school Carey College, told the schools it was generally recognised that parental use of force in the correction of children was now illegal and because schools acted "in the place of parents" they were also affected.
"It appears that forcing a child to undergo correction at school will constitute an assault," he wrote.
"A school that forces a child to write lines, pick up paper in the playground or be detained at an interval or after school, for the purpose of punishment or correction, is likely to be committing an assault.
"Schools need to note that 'force' is a term not restricted to physical force: it can involve placing a child under duress whereby he reasonably believes he will suffer if he does not comply."
He would not comment on whether he had taken legal advice before drafting the letter.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said the Education Act banned corporal punishment in schools but did not prohibit other forms of discipline if necessary.
The ministry was not aware of any change in the law that would prevent schools issuing detentions or asking students to write lines.
University of Auckland law school dean Paul Rishworth said writing lines could not be conceived as an assault.
The subject of detention in schools was "a little bit under-examined" but he believed the punishment also did not constitute assault.
Green MP Sue Bradford's member's bill removed from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of "reasonable force" to correct a child. A late amendment gave police the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent where the offence was considered to be inconsequential.
Ms Bradford said the suggestion schools risked being accused of assault for punishing students was nonsense. "There's certainly been an issue with some of the Christian schools that they have been using physical discipline on their children.
"Sometimes they were getting the parents in to physically punish their children but that is a far cry from just the normal detention situation that many schools would use."
A police spokesman said officers would not act on complaints such as lines or detention.
