A primary school teacher in Co Kildare taught eight-year-old pupils in a darkened classroom, prevented them from visiting the toilet and made them write essays about decapitated bodies and serial killers, it was claimed yesterday by the school that dismissed him.
Several pupils soiled themselves because they were barred from the toilets during class, the principal of Holy Child National School, Naas, Co Kildare, told an employment appeals tribunal hearing in Dublin.
Ms Patricia Kennelly said Mr Gerard Moore, of Lakeside Park, Naas, also insisted pupils kept their pencils sharpened to a certain length or they got into trouble.
The principal said Mr Moore "liked aggro, liked hassle". She said he also believed pupils were privileged to be taught by him because he was a member of MENSA, the organisation for people with high intelligence.
Mr Moore, a teacher at the school for 18 years, is claiming unfair dismissal against its board of management. Mr Moore's father, Mr Timothy Moore, representing him, said his son "puts on an act and is a bit of a joker".
He said the school's board of management exaggerated incidents involving his son. "You are making a mountain out of a molehill," he said.
The school claimed two incidents informed its decision in November 1998 to seek Mr Moore's dismissal. One was his assignment for pupils, a project on US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, on sheets decorated with drops of blood.
"Children had to write pieces about decapitated bodies in deep freezers," said Ms Kennelly, as part of the project. She said it was highly inappropriate for eight-year-old pupils to be asked to deal with such material.
The second incident, she said, was when Mr Moore took a class to Fort Lucan Adventure Park, without informing the school authorities. She said a child bumped her head during the trip and got sick subsequently. She said Mr Moore did not contact the girl's mother about the incident.
Mr Timothy Moore, a retired journalist, said Ms Kennelly's evidence was "completely over the top" and Mr Moore was attempting to educate the pupils about badness and goodness in the world.
"So should children only be told about the sweet smell of roses, that there is no badness in the world?" he asked Ms Kennelly. She said no, but a school should always have respect for life.
Mr Moore said the only thing his son did was to show the pupils an article on Dahmer from the "staid Irish Independent" and not from tabloid newspapers, which tended to be gory and "have a certain slant". He showed the cutting and said children were reading articles like it all the time.
He said his son brought the article into class after a child asked the meaning of the word "serial". He said to Ms Kennelly: "You have a tendency to blow up stuff that is really trivial."
In relation to the darkened classroom, Mr Moore said the only reason Gerard put the lights off was because Ms Kennelly had talked about the "wasteful use of electricity" in the school. He added that his son put the blinds down because there was often a "glare".
Ms Kennelly said her only concern was the children, and Mr Moore's rules about access to the toilets troubled her. "He could not understand because he did not need to go to the toilet during the day why the children needed to go," she said. She said Mr Moore allowed pupils to go at break time but not during class. "Some children actually soiled themselves on a few occasions," she said.
The hearing continues today.