Magistrate Roger Clisdell’s emotional rant overruled after teacher accused of hitting student

A teacher will have to face court again after the magistrate who labelled the case an ‘insanity’ in an emotional rant as he found her not guilty of hitting a student had his ruling overturned.

A magistrate has been criticised after launching a bizarre tirade slamming the NSW Education Department and branding an alleged child victim a “juvenile delinquent”.

Magistrate Roger Clisdell found teacher Emma Tiller not guilty of common assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, after she allegedly shoved the arms of a young student at school.

The veteran magistrate unleashed a passionate speech after hearing Ms Tiller pushed the boy because she believed he was putting his genitalia in another child’s face — and declared “shame on the education department” for sacking Ms Tiller.

“Gee, I wish I could go back and sue all my teachers from primary school,” he said.

“This is a classic case of the insanity that has overtaken society in the 21st century.

The appeal was heard in the NSW Supreme Court.

“So, what do I get in court on a regular basis?

“I get people from a generation who never experienced discipline at school and never had (a) report saying they’d failed, who never came last in a race, come in here and there studious T-shirt and thongs, and say, ‘What ya want mate?’.”

Magistrate Clisdell said his own daughter had walked away from the teaching profession due to a “nervous breakdown” caused by students.

“Who would be a schoolteacher, my daughter lasted (a) year as a schoolteacher and gave it away, had a nervous breakdown.

“Who would be a schoolteacher today?

“The insanity of allowing lunatics to run an asylum has become endemic in our society and the courts cop criticism all the time because we don’t stand up for what people see as proper values.”

After hearing the evidence last year, Magistrate Clisdell said he did not believe Tiller acted inappropriately – and that he was acting on instinct to protect another child.

“I accept that a slap to the shoulder is hardly what one would call inappropriate and unreasonable force,” he said.

“If she’d slapped him on the head she would have been in big trouble, but she didn’t.”

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the decision in the NSW Supreme Court in November last year, with Justice Sarah McNaughton this week finding Magistrate Clisdell “did not provide adequate reasons” behind the not guilty finding, and that his emotions interfered with his judgment.

As a result, she overturned his finding, meaning Tiller will have to return to court to fight the allegations again.

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