'Banned' pregnant pupil wins £6,250 from school

A Northern Ireland girl banned from a convent school in Co Fermanagh after becoming pregnant has been awarded more than £6,000…

A Northern Ireland girl banned from a convent school in Co Fermanagh after becoming pregnant has been awarded more than £6,000 compensation in an out-of-court settlement.

The Convent Grammar School, Mount Lourdes, in Enniskillen had told 16-year-old Margaret McCluskey that her pregnancy was against the Catholic ethos. It suspended her from attending classes and banned her from sitting her GCSE exams at the school.

Miss McCluskey, whose daughter Judina is four, is now in her final year at Cambridge University in England.

The Board of Governors of Mount Lourdes formally admitted liability and agreed to pay Miss McCluskey £6,250 damages. She plans to use the money to further her education.

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The school has also given an undertaking to review its pastoral care programme to ensure that in future no pupil is treated less favourably just because they are pregnant.