Sir, – I would like to back up Justine McCarthy’s criticism of the proposed Government scoping inquiry on secondary school abuse (“What is the difference between a sexual assault on a Protestant schoolboy and a Catholic schoolboy?”, Opinion & Analysis, April 14th).
The assumption behind the inquiry’s remit seems to be that abuse only took place in Catholic schools.
But abuse was not necessarily absent in schools with a different ethos.
Access to vulnerable children, unquestioned power and weak management are all factors in allowing abuse to occur – and unfortunately, they can happen in any school.
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A fair scoping inquiry should cover all schools. – Yours, etc,
MAIRIDE WOODS,
Dublin 13.