Bullying case highlights need for professional support for principals

TALKBACK:Proper professional support structures must be put in place in our schools

HERE’S a confession. I feel a tinge of sympathy for Dr Austin Corcoran, the former school principal involved in a recent high-profile bullying case.

Last month, a High Court judge awarded €88,000 in damages to a teacher, against the board of management of Ballinteer Community School in Dublin arising from “deliberate and conscious” bullying and harassment of her by Corcoran. At one stage he hired a private investigator to follow her.

Mr Justice Daniel Herbert said Corcoran behaved “like an offended tyrant” towards Bridget Sweeney, the home-school liaison co-ordinator, in his dealings with her.

The evidence established, on the balance of probabilities, that Sweeney suffered a psychiatric illness, clinical depression, between February 2008 and June 2010, arising from continuous bullying by Corcoran from March 2007. This mental injury resulting from the bullying was reasonably foreseeable by Corcoran and the board, and the court ruled there was a breach of the employer’s direct duty of care to Sweeney.

This was a very clear-cut case. It is good that Sweeney’s rights were vindicated by the court.

So how could I possibly have sympathy for Corcoran? How could the chief executive of any organisation – in this case a school – make such fundamental errors?

In my view, a case like this underlines the problems with our system of school management. The majority of school principals do a great job but this is because of their skill and commitment – and not any real professional training.

Let me explain.

Last year I addressed an in-service training course for newly-appointed principals on the role of the guidance counsellor in second-level schools. I stressed the importance of counselling. I pointed out how the Department of Education was aware of the sensitivities involved in this work – and the dangers of being involved in counselling without proper training and support.

The department, I explained, had put in place a professional counselling supervision support structure for guidance counsellors which they were obliged to use – if employed in that role in a second-level school.

I was taken aback by the reaction of the principals. The universal refrain was “what about support for us?”. One principal said: “We move from the role of classroom teacher – where we have a clearly-defined role learned over a lifetime of teaching and where we have the support of colleagues – into a totally isolated role, where we are confronted by an avalanche of complex administrative, legal, and interpersonal issues every day.”

Over time, without professional support structures, it’s so easy to see how principals could make one bad judgment which will end up defining your entire career.

It is for this reason and no other I have some sympathy for Corcoran. Isn’t it time we put in place proper professional support structures for those managing our schools?

Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor at Oatlands College, Dublin