17/02/2025
1. The school premises is a public place, and so far as there is no school regulation prohibiting recording of videos or any other leisure activity in the school premises, she didn’t break any law recording videos.
2. Her expulsion was not based on the fact of her recording a video, but fighting/assaulting a staff/lecturer, which is against the code of conduct for students.
3. She can sue the school, but she’ll have to prove that her conduct in having the physical feats with the lecturer was justified in the circumstances.
4. At the point the lecturer came to seize her phone, if her reaction in biting and dragging his shirt can be proved to be the right course of action in self defense, then the law will avail her. But if the bites and physical dragging of his shirt falls short of “self-defense”, then her case will collapse in court. However, she has a right to sue (but succeeding is another ball game based on her evidence and facts of the case)
5. I have explained in paragraph 4 that she has to prove that her conduct in having a face off with the lecturer falls under “good conduct” and therefore has not committed any misconduct.
6. Everyone has a right of access to court for redress for any issue of assault.
7. 7. Our Constitution guarantees privacy to private life. But whether the video was image of the lecturer or the student is a discussion which I do not think came under the umbrella of “privacy”. There’s nothing “privacy violation” in capturing a moving picture. Posting a lecturer’s face on social media by a student still falls under misconduct and not violation of privacy.
Emenike Chioke Esq.
(Human Rights Lawyer)
Managing Partner, Toplaw & Attorneys.
