The lawyer for the father, who can't be identified to protect the girl, told The Gazette newspaper that Justice Suzanne Tessier overstepped the court's bounds last Friday when she ruled in favor of the girl's legal challenge and said she would be allowed to go on a school trip her father had forbidden because of misbehavior.

"I don't think this tribunal was the proper forum for a decision like this one," lawyer Kim Beaudoin said. "If we don't learn at the age of 12 there are rules to follow, when do we?"

He said he was preparing an appeal based on the fact the judge acknowledged the girl's repeated defiance of her father's house rules.

They included bypassing security settings to block Web sites the father didn't trust, then using a friend's computer to access those sites. Beaudoin said the girl also posted online photos of herself "inappropriate for a child her age," the report said.