Mother takes action against primary school over alleged bullying of son

A judge has urged the mother of a boy, who is claiming damages from his former primary school where she says he was subjected to bullying for two years, to cease resisting the plaintiff’s request to have him assessed by a psychiatrist.

Judge Pauline Codd made her comments at Galway Circuit Civil Court yesterday, after acknowledging that the defendant’s case was being impeded and that they were entitled to have an assessment in a personal injuries case.

“His mother’s concerns are understandable, but at the same time it has to be balanced with the defendant’s rights… I do think she should consider her position,” she said.

The court heard that the issue had arisen in the County Registrar’s Court in January, at which point Marian Higgins had agreed with Mairead Doyle, solicitor for the boy and his mother, that any such examination would have a detrimental effect on his progress.

It was then put into the Circuit Court list to be considered by a Judge, and for the boy’s mother to submit an affidavit in the meantime.

In it she stated that while her son was a pupil in the school he was the victim of physical and verbal harassment which, she said, the school had allowed to continue.

She said that the boy was extremely traumatised, as a result, and that she and her husband were left with no option but to remove him from the school for his “physical and psychological safety.”

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune