A CO Tipperary secondary school has welcomed a court judgment overturning an Equality Tribunal ruling that it had indirectly discriminated against a Traveller in its admission policy when it refused the boy a place at the school.
The board of management at CBS High School in Clonmel welcomed the decision by Judge Thomas Teehan to set aside a ruling by the tribunal in a case taken against the school by Mary Stokes on behalf of her son, John (13).
At Clonmel Circuit Court last Monday, the judge allowed the school’s appeal. The board of management said yesterday it was pleased the court had recognised the important role played by past pupils in the school’s success.
“For over two decades, the school has strived to put in place an admission policy that is both fair and inclusive and relates to the very unique situation that it finds itself in due to the constant problem of oversubscription,” the board said in a statement.
Ms Stokes, who was assisted by the Irish Traveller Movement independent law centre, had lodged the complaint against the school on the grounds that it had breached the Equal Status Act when it failed to admit her son.
The court heard the school’s admission policy was based on three criteria: that the applicant was Catholic; had attended a recognised feeder primary school; and had a father or older sibling who had attended the school.
Lawyers for the complainant had argued the admission policy requiring parental attendance was discriminatory against Travellers as it put them at a disadvantage, given the low rates of secondary school attendance among Traveller men in the 1970s and 1980s.
The judge said he was satisfied the parental rule was discriminatory against Travellers and recent immigrants, whose parents were unlikely to have attended the school. But the school had shown its stated goal of supporting a family ethos within education was legitimate, and he believed its admission policy based on the three criteria was correct, given applicant numbers had exceeded available places in all but two years recently.
The judge also noted the school had highlighted the importance of ties between the school and past pupils in meeting funding shortfalls, and he ruled that the parental rule was a necessary step towards creating a balanced and proportionate admission policy.