I regret very much having to use what might seem to some people as an extreme way of trying to resolve what is in the first instance a parochial but nonetheless important matter. I equally regret having to raise this matter in the House because the school involved, Greendale community school, is renowned for its achievements not only in education and sport but also as the school in which Mr. Doyle, the author and scriptwriter of the film "The Commitments" and his colleague, Mr. Mercier, teach.
In May last year the school took a decision, which was ultimately confirmed in June, to suspend three pupils. One of them was readmitted in September but the other two are spending their time sitting on street corners with nowhere to go and no prospect of education. The school simply will not listen to their case.
I wrote first to the principal of the school on 4 July 1991 asking simply to meet with him and the board of management to try to resolve the matter, but I was refused this request. I wrote to the then Minister for Education on 18 October of last year asking her to investigate the matter. I appreciate that since then there have been two changes in the Department of Education, but my simple achievements to date have been to receive three acknowledgments from two Ministers indicating that the matter would be investigated. Throughout all of this time the pupils are sitting on the street corner.
The facts simply surround an allegation of stone throwing in the school in April of 1991. It is alleged that a stone or stones were thrown at a teacher's motor car. A separate and unrelated incident is alleged to involve the use of bad language by a number of pupils. Five students were accused of being involved not specifically in any one of the two incidents but in the crowd from which the trouble emanated on both occasions. They were brought before the board of management, and they denied all knowledge of or involvement in the two incidents. However, the board of management and the principal took a different attitude. In a letter to the parents of the pupils the principal of the school stated:
I said that [name of student] was in the group which threw the stones and shouted the abuse. Whether or not he is innocent, he certainly knows who is guilty. By identifying the guilty party or parties he would help establish his own claimed innocence.
That is inverting the process of accusation and proof in terms of fair procedures. The approach of the principal and the board of management appears to be that by bringing the pupils before them they would attempt to establish the full facts, not necessarily prove the case against them.
The pupils were brought before a board of management meeting on 25 or 26 May and were suspended for a period of two weeks. They were then paraded before their own class, told that they would be held on probation for that period and that they would have to carry a tally book that would be marked each time they passed a teacher in the corridor. Subsequently at a meeting on 24 June at which the pupils were not present and to which they were not allowed make representations, three of the pupils were suspended without further notice. One of these pupils has been readmitted but the other two remained suspended. Despite all the efforts on my part in my contact with the principal of the school and the Department I have made no progress, and the two pupils concerned want to go back to school.
The penalties imposed, even if the facts were proved, are wholly inappropriate and excessive in the circumstances. The two pupils who now stand penalised, aged 15 and 16 years, are without schooling. They should not be left standing on the street with no prospects of education. There is a total departure in this case from the recognised procedures laid down in guidelines by the Department as to how to deal with disciplinary matters. There seems to be a history in the school of taking a rather heavy-handed attitude to discipline on occasions. Finally, there has been a total denial of the right to be heard. The alleged witnesses to these events were never produced. Mr. Doyle, one of the alleged complainants confirmed to the principal outside of the meeting that he was not in a position to name anyone involved in the bad language incident.
I appreciate the Minister cannot dictate to any principal of a school as to what he or she should do. However, I am asking him to intervene and try to resolve this problem which is utterly ridiculous and totally untenable.
