By Kellah Lavoie

SRSD faces lawsuit

Aug 11, 2011 | 10:53 AM

The Saskatchewan River School division is being sued.

The lawsuit dates back to March 10, 2010 when a boy, who was 12 at the time, was texting in class at Riverside School.

According to a statement of claim paNOW.com has acquired from the Court of Queen’s Bench, the cell phone was taken away as per school rules. It was brought to the vice-principal who allegedly read the text message, which talked about a stolen car.

The vice-principal asked the student about the message and allegedly said if he did not give information he would call police. The boy could not provide the last name of the person he was texting and police were called.

The boy ended up finding out the location of the stolen vehicle and leading police there.

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The plaintiff say, in the document, they are in constant fear of retaliation. They even took the boy out of the city on weekends. He no longer lives in Prince Albert.

The plaintiff calls the actions tortious, uncalled for, negligent and a breach of privacy.

The court documents say police and the school division should have waited to call the boy’s grandparents – his legal guardians – before allegedly getting him to assist in locating the stolen vehicle.

They are suing the school division and the vice-principal for $1,424 for travel costs and $50,000 for punitive damages.

The document says the boy has a lot of anger and his grades have dropped since the incident.

The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division has declined to comment since the matter is still before the courts.

The Prince Albert Police Service is also not commenting on the issue.

“Prince Albert Police will offer no comment at this time on a lawsuit currently before the Courts involving the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division, a text message received by a student, and the related investigation that led to the recovery of a stolen vehicle,” they said in a press release, adding it is inappropriate to comment since it is before the courts.

klavoie@panow.com