Parents at a school at the centre of allegations of the mistreatment of students by a school principal have criticised the authorities for not acting sooner to protect their children.
The parents of one child named in a complaint sent by staff at the school to the Education and Training Board that runs the school have told RTÉ News that they wrote to the ETB a year-and-a-half ago to complain about the principal, but that nothing was done.
Yesterday, RTÉ News revealed details of the document staff sent to the ETB, which catalogued the physical and emotional mistreatment of students and was sent to the school's ETB patron.
The principal has said that the allegations are "completely incorrect" and that they have never abused anybody.
RTÉ News has seen the letter to the ETB, sent in March 2022 in which the father says the behaviour of the school principal has left him "really upset and speechless".
It is understood that staff at the school were also raising concerns with the ETB about problems with the school principal for some time before they decided to make their formal written complaint.
As well as complaints from parents and staff to the ETB, Department of Education inspectors visited the school a number of years ago and published a report highly critical of the school’s leadership.
Some close to the school are questioning why the authorities failed to act earlier to address the serious concerns that were raised on a number of fronts.
In his letter of complaint, this father describes his great concern at how his child is being treated by the school principal.
He said the principal told him that no one wanted to teach his son and described him as if he was an "adult criminal".
The father said in his letter that comments by the principal had left him "really speechless and upset".
However, the reply he received from the ETB Director of Schools directed him back to the school principal.
"While I am Director of Schools with responsibility for [the school] this is an issue that needs to be addressed with the principal in the first instance," it said.
It went on to say that if unsuccessful the father could appeal to the school board of management. The father said that when he received that response he felt "abandoned".
RTÉ News has asked the ETB in question why it had not acted on complaints received long before the staff formal complaint, but it has declined to comment.
Inspection report described quality of management at school as 'weak'
Department of Education inspectors visited the school a year after the principal was appointed.
The report they subsequently issued described the quality of leadership and management at the school as "weak".
This is the lowest of four rankings used by inspectors and according to the department "applies where there are serious deficiencies in the areas evaluated and where immediate and coordinated whole school action is required, including the possible intervention of outside agencies".
The inspector's report made a significant number of negative findings across a range of areas, including that of special educational needs provision.
Using the tempered language typical of such reports it found deficits in leadership and it said support for students with SEN in mainstream lessons was unsatisfactory in most of the lessons that inspectors had observed.
The inspectors said aspects of school governance needed urgent attention. Their report also found that too many students were leaving the school after the Junior Cycle.
Inspectors said this was of significant concern and also a challenge for the school.
The inspectors raised concerns about student attendance and punctuality and said the negative effects of these on student learning were obvious.
Student attendance and punctuality are often closely related to family circumstances, but department inspectors questioned whether in this case there might be school-related obstacles to student participation.
They recommended that attendance data be examined to try to establish whether this might be the case.
In what is another unusually negative statement, the report said that the school’s engagement with the school improvement process had been "limited" and that its capacity for improvement was only "fair".
It said the school would need a high level of support from the Education and Training Board in order to overcome the shortfalls that the inspectors had identified.
RTÉ News understands that staff complaints to the ETB centred initially on the alleged bullying of staff and on mismanagement or the lack of management at the school.
The school principal was placed on administrative leave earlier this year without prejudice pending investigation, but only after the staff submitted a formal lengthy complaint, which itemised in detail allegations related to the treatment of children attending the school.
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RTÉ News has spoken to parents, past pupils, current students at the school and people from outside agencies who have worked closely with the school in recent years.
They have told RTÉ News that the school’s reputation has been greatly damaged in recent years.
One past pupil said the school used to be "a magical place" where those who worked there always went out of their way to support and mind students.
All have given distressing accounts of their dealings with the school principal. They have reiterated allegations made in the formal staff complaint, of the belittling and verbal harassment of students.
"[They] told me I was nothing and would never come to anything," one recent past pupil said.
A student, who is still attending the school, also contacted RTÉ News through her father, "so that the voice of students is heard".
This student did not know that she is named in the complaint by staff as one with whom the school principal inappropriately shared intimate details about their own private life. The student confirmed that incident.
It is understood that staff are now highly concerned for the future of the school and that they want to work to restore its reputation.
In recent weeks, they have been instructed not to respond to any media queries.
In their complaint staff said: "We have stayed because we want to do our job well and because we believe in the school and in our students and do not want to abandon them."
One person close to the school said: "Too many people [in authority] knew and did nothing, and as a result we watched a place that we were so passionate about and loved being dismantled."
Another said: "We want our old school back.
"We have the most amazing kids, and we have fantastic staff. We want to rekindle that, to get back to doing what we always did, supporting them."
Group highlights weaknesses in reporting procedures
Another person close to the school, while also highly critical of the principal at the centre of these allegations, said "the ETB has let staff down but they have let [the principal] down as well".
This person pointed out that a school patron has a duty of care not just towards children but also towards school staff.
The Irish Association of Social Workers has said the revelations highlight worrying weaknesses in mandatory child protection reporting procedures in Ireland.
Every school is obliged to have a Designated Liaison Person to whom child protection concerns are reported. In the case of this school, the DLP was the principal.
Sinéad McGarry, of the association, said: "It is very difficult for individual workers to make reports if their concerns are being undermined by senior staff or structures within their organisations.
"It is exceptionally difficult to do so in a weak safeguarding structure."
Ms McGarry said the revelations showed how the system was failing people who were trying to raise concerns.
If you have been affected by issues raised in this report, helplines are available here
