blackhawk
04-03-2007, 12:02 PM
T.O. Principal Pleads Guilty to Flinging Feces at Boy
A Toronto elementary school principal was granted an absolute discharge after admitting to throwing human feces on a boy last July.
Maria Pantalone, 49 and the sister of deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, pleaded guilty in court at Old City Hall on Monday to one count of assault. She had been facing two charges.
"I couldn't take it anymore. It was total, total frustration," she testified, according to the Toronto Star.
Pantalone admitted she wasn't justified in throwing the excrement on July 30, which hit a 12-year-old boy on the shoulder and told the court it won't happen again.
A publication ban prevents the naming of the victim, who was not a student of Pantalone's, as well as reporting details of the incident that might identify him.
Pantalone was suspended with pay from Keele Street Junior Public School and Mountview Alternative School after she was charged.
Justice Howard Borenstein agreed to an absolute discharge as jointly recommended by the Crown prosecutor and Pantalone's defence lawyer.
Calling the incident a "momentary lapse of judgment" that was out of character for the principal, Borenstein noted 20 letters of support submitted to the court as evidence of her character, according to newspaper reports.
Borenstein told the court Pantalone has paid enough and suffered more than most for having been charged.
A Toronto elementary school principal was granted an absolute discharge after admitting to throwing human feces on a boy last July.
Maria Pantalone, 49 and the sister of deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, pleaded guilty in court at Old City Hall on Monday to one count of assault. She had been facing two charges.
"I couldn't take it anymore. It was total, total frustration," she testified, according to the Toronto Star.
Pantalone admitted she wasn't justified in throwing the excrement on July 30, which hit a 12-year-old boy on the shoulder and told the court it won't happen again.
A publication ban prevents the naming of the victim, who was not a student of Pantalone's, as well as reporting details of the incident that might identify him.
Pantalone was suspended with pay from Keele Street Junior Public School and Mountview Alternative School after she was charged.
Justice Howard Borenstein agreed to an absolute discharge as jointly recommended by the Crown prosecutor and Pantalone's defence lawyer.
Calling the incident a "momentary lapse of judgment" that was out of character for the principal, Borenstein noted 20 letters of support submitted to the court as evidence of her character, according to newspaper reports.
Borenstein told the court Pantalone has paid enough and suffered more than most for having been charged.