A school principal must adhere to a decision by the Co Wicklow Vocational Education Committee to allow back into his school a boy who had smoked cannabis during a school trip, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Raymond Comyn, for the VEC, argued only the VEC was entitled to expel a pupil and Mr Gear≤id ╙ Ciarβin was not entitled to ignore a decision by the VEC that the boy, David McKenna, may attend Colβiste Raithin in Bray, Co Wicklow. Counsel denied that Mr ╙ Ciarβin had not received proper guidance from the VEC on the legal position for the school should it readmit the boy and added the VEC conceded the boy was entitled to an order directing Mr ╙ Ciarβin not to exclude him.
Proceedings taken by Mr McKenna (16), of Dargle Road, Bray, against Mr ╙ Ciarβin, the board of management of Colβiste Raithin and the VEC concluded yesterday before Mr Justice O'Caoimh who reserved judgment to November 30th. The boy is seeking an order directing Mr ╙ Ciarβin not to exclude him from the school from where he was suspended on October 23rd 2000 after he and four other boys were found to have smoked cannabis during a school trip to the Aran Islands. A subsequent decision by the school board of management on November 6th 2000 to recommend the expulsion of all five boys was reversed on November 15th 2000.
The reversed decision to allow the boys be readmitted was upheld by the VEC on November 21st 2000 but, when Mr McKenna went to the school on December 1st, he was informed in a letter from Mr ╙ Ciarβin he could not attend. Three of the boys involved have been readmitted while the fourth was withdrawn by his parents.
In closing submissions yesterday, Mr Seamus O'Tuathail, for Mr ╙ Ciarβin, argued his client had received legal advice that as school principal, he had a responsibility to keep out any "hazards" to the school and he regarded Mr McKenna as a hazard. Mr O'Tuathail also submitted that one VEC member, Fianna Fβil TD Mr Dick Roche, who had attended the VEC meeting which voted the boy should be allowed resume school, was not entitled to vote.