BACK TO SCHOOL FOR EXPELLED DRUG PUPIL

A Co Wicklow headmaster who expelled a 16-year-old pupil for
drug-dealing and drug-abuse has been ordered by the High Court to
re-admit the boy to school next week.

And now Gearoid O Ciarain, the head of Colaiste Raithin, Florence
Road, Bray, has to appear before the High Court again in three weeks
for a judicial review of the case.

Yesterday Mr Justice Aindreas O Caoimh granted an interlocutory
injunction to the boy's parents allowing the boy to return to the
high achievers' school on January 8.

Last night Mr O Ciarain, who has been principal of Colaiste Raithin
since it opened almost 10 years ago, said the judgment raises very
serious questions for him as principal of the school.

"It also has implications for other teachers who might find
themselves in a similar situation," he said.

Three months ago Mr O Ciarain and his deputy head, Noirin Ni
Chonghaile, took a group of transition-year pupils to Inis Mor on the
Aran Islands for a weekend.

On their first evening there, an islander complained that his house
had been hit by a missile. The pupils were questioned and the pupil
who was later expelled handed over what appeared to be a toy gun.

The gun, later examined by Garda ballistic experts turned out to be
an air gun, for which a licence is needed.

The following day the teachers noticed that another pupil was very
disorientated and admitted smoking hash.

The boy, who was later to be expelled, claimed he had bought pounds
70 worth of hash from a dealer in Bray the day before the weekend
trip.

At a later meeting with his teachers, and in the presence of his
parents, he admitted to collecting money from two other pupils,
contacting a dealer in Bray and receiving pounds 70 worth of hash,
some of which he distributed to fellow students on the train from
Dublin to Galway.

He also admitted to being a party to an incident which involved the
use of illegal drugs near the Community Centre in Boghall Road some
months earlier.

This student and four others were initially suspended from school,
and a Board of Management meeting some days later decided to expel
them.

However, at another meeting of the Board it was decided to take all
five back into the school. Then the VEC got involved and upheld the
Board of Management decision to reinstate the pupils.

Mr O Ciarain then told the VEC and the Board of Management that he
had problems with this decision, relating specifically to one pupil.

"I refused to take this particular boy back because I was unhappy
with the procedures followed by the VEC," Mr O Ciarain said yesterday.

At a lengthy meeting of a sub-committee of the VEC Mr O Ciarain
outlined his reasons for refusing to take the pupil back into the
co-ed school.

"However, the VEC insisted that I should take the pupil back, and in
the meantime the pupil's parents sought a judicial review and an
injunction in the High Court," Mr O Ciarain explained.

The issue languished over the Christmas holiday period, and the case
was heard at the beginning of January.

Mr Justice O Caoimh decided the boy should return to school when the
new term begins on Monday and has directed that the VEC also appear
in court on January 22.