A 10-YEAR-OLD schoolboy, who was bitten by a dog as he played with pals while waiting for classes to begin, has been awarded £3,500 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.
Judge Bryan McMahon held that school managements owed children a duty of care even during the brief "spillover" periods just prior to first morning classes and following the afternoon school's-out bell.
"The law requires that schools take reasonable care for pupils while under their control and there is ample authority holding them responsible for those short periods when children are assembling for the school day or preparing to go home," Judge McMahon said.
Mr Ronan Dolan, counsel for Eamonn Greene, Brookview Drive, Brookview, Tallaght, Dublin, told the court there had been no adult supervision in the playground of St Aidan's National School, Brookfield, Tallaght, on the morning the boy was attacked by a vicious dog which later had to be destroyed.
The boy said the big black and white dog started running after children as they played in the schoolyard while awaiting the assembly bell. It had jumped on his nine-year-old sister, Samantha, knocking her over before it jumped up on him with its paws and bit his left leg.
Judge McMahon said there was an obligation on school managements to see that children were supervised for "some minutes" during arrival and departure periods.
Had there been supervision provided, it was likely an adult could have intervened when the dog entered the playground and started to chase the children.
Sometimes dogs merely played with children but such play was converted by the child into fear and the dog, sensing fear, turned frolic into attack, he said. Awarding the boy £3,500 damages, Judge McMahon said his physical injures had not been too serious. He had suffered nightmares and developed a fear of dogs.