Parents of suspended Leaving Cert pupils to take legal action

Cabaal · 18-08-2012 09:32AM #1

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0818/1224322386260.html

Some 113 of the 120 sixth-year pupils at the High School in Rathgar were suspended on May 18th after an incident on May 4th in which they locked themselves into the sixth-year common room for 55 minutes and played dance music.

There were 2½ days of lessons remaining.

Pretty sure the same thing would have happened to my class when I was in school had we done something so stupid, perhaps due to the fact that the school is a fee paying school the kids thought they'd get away with it so close to the end of the year?

Tombi! · 18-08-2012 10:26AM

The kids reputations were ruined because they got suspended for breaking the rules?

Should be told to feck off IMO.

jank · 18-08-2012 10:32AM

They broke the rules yet cant take the punishment, Muppets the lot of them. Welcome to the entitlement generation.

Grayson · 18-08-2012 10:33AM

It was probably ****e music as well.

MadsL · 18-08-2012 10:36AM

jank wrote: »

They broke the rules yet cant take the punishment, Muppets the lot of them. Welcome to the entitlement generation.

The entitlement generation with parental access to legal counsel. Whilst they should have had access to due process, suing in the first instance is absurd behaviour; I hope the judge sticks em with costs.

3ndahalfof6 · 18-08-2012 10:44AM

I am pretty sure this has been done.

mikemac1 · 18-08-2012 10:46AM

Our children’s reputations have been damaged.

Jaysus :rolleyes:

It's over now, who cares

These must be the type of people to call for rich daddys lawyer

kylith · 18-08-2012 10:52AM

What did they expect for breaking school rules, a pat on the back and the key to the city?

Anyone · 18-08-2012 10:53AM

The crap that passes for news these days....

Talib Fiasco · 18-08-2012 10:53AM

I suppose they'll tell the judge that their children did awful in the LC because of their tarnished reputation...my god this is ridiculous. If they prevented them from doing the Leaving in the school they might have some case but this is just laughable. And eventhough their children, nobody will go against the school seeing they haven't done anything wrong.

Rynox45 · 18-08-2012 10:59AM

This happened in my school. The entire year was told not to come into school because a few students continued being disorderly after they'd received a warning. I didn't care, we were allowed to come in to study if we wanted to. Probably improved my results tbh.

It's this sort of rubbish that's becoming more common.

stephen_k · 18-08-2012 11:06AM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Jaysus :rolleyes:

It's over now, who cares

These must be the type of people to call for rich daddys lawyer

Also High School? Are ya wannabe Americans?

The High School was founded in 1870 and it's name has nothing to do with American "High School"...

Grayson · 18-08-2012 11:12AM

Rynox45 wrote: »

This happened in my school. The entire year was told not to come into school because a few students continued being disorderly after they'd received a warning. I didn't care, we were allowed to come in to study if we wanted to. Probably improved my results tbh.

It's this sort of rubbish that's becoming more common.

I assume the 6 that weren't suspended weren't in that day?

godtabh · 18-08-2012 11:32AM

Grayson wrote: »

I assume the 6 that weren't suspended weren't in that day?

There was one more lad

cometogether · 18-08-2012 12:06PM

Sound like lads just having a laugh

shopaholic01 · 18-08-2012 12:07PM

Imagine if the poor darlings were hurt while unsupervised in a locked room .......... oh wait, the parents would still sue:rolleyes:.

Biggins · 18-08-2012 12:18PM

All pupils (as are parents) are made aware every year of a schools code of conduct - the pupils then broke the rules.

What the hell did they expect to happen in reaction?

I'm a parent of four kids - and if my son/daughter broke the rules, by god I'd expect a reaction from the people running the school.
Frankly, I hope there would be one if only to teach my offspring that there is always consequences to peoples actions.

If the parents signed to agree to the schools code of conduct and as such also accepted the authoritarian exercise of corresponding punishments for the breaking of those rules, they are wasting their time in trying to sue the school.

I have no sympathy for the pupils or the parents.

bluecode · 18-08-2012 12:19PM

Sounds like a bunch of over privileged brats with overbearing parents. The original event and suspension amounts to a brilliant and memorable escapade long remembered.

Now it'll be a sour memory which will not reflect well on either the parents or the students. The school had no choice but to suspend them. In practical terms it was only a nominal suspension. If the school didn't react, next year the class of 2013 will attempt to top it with something even better and so on into the future.

You can almost guarantee this legal threat is being led by a small number of parents. You know the type, overdeveloped personalities, self righteous and egotisical.

They are making fools of themselves.

Heroditas · 18-08-2012 12:24PM

Hmmmm I know two teachers in that school and the story has been glossed over in the press.
There was a hardcore group that led the whole thing and bullied the rest of the year into taking part.
None of the kids would name the names of the ringleaders so they all got suspended.

The parents should be told to fcuk off.
I really hate the way there's so much handwringing and mollycoddling nowadays. It really is pathetic
Nobody will give a ****e this time next year if those kids were suspended.
Talk about bring absorbed in their own self importance. Makes me sick.

steddyeddy · 18-08-2012 01:27PM

Spoiled brats tbh and I include the parents in that statemen. The entitlement generation strikes once again. Through no merit of their own they are in a fee paying school and they blew it.

Rothmans · 18-08-2012 01:53PM

I feel sorry for the kids who did nothing wrong except being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but, on the bright side, at least they got 2 1/2 days.

The ringleaders were obviously cowards who wouldn't step forward to accept their punishment, and were content to let the rest of the students suffer for their actions.

bnt · 18-08-2012 02:21PM

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

The kids reputations were ruined because they got suspended for breaking the rules?

The kids' reputations were ruined on Facebook, perhaps. In the real world, meanwhile, who gives a hoot?

Biggins · 18-08-2012 02:24PM

bnt wrote: »

The kids' reputations were ruined on Facebook, perhaps. In the real world, meanwhile, who gives a hoot?

The man speaks the truth again.

drkpower · 18-08-2012 02:25PM

Biggins wrote: »

All pupils (as are parents) are made aware every year of a schools code of conduct - the pupils then broke the rules.

What the hell did they expect to happen in reaction?

Well, it appears that the school didnt actually follow their own code of conduct. Apparently, the parents of any pupil involved in a serious breach of discipline “will be invited to a meeting with the year head and the principal or deputy principal . . . The details of the breach will be read to the parents and the pupil’s contribution to the school . . . in the past will be taken into account”.

That doesnt appear to have happened in the majority of cases. You either have a code of conduct, or you dont.

LizT · 18-08-2012 02:27PM

Ridiculous. 2 and a half days of school missed? Get over it, they would have been taught everything already and if it was anything like my school, those days are mostly spent dossing off or studying anyway.

Biggins · 18-08-2012 02:34PM

drkpower wrote: »

Well, it appears that the school didnt actually follow their own code of conduct.

You know what was in their "Code of Conduct" ?

drkpower wrote: »

...Apparently, the parents of any pupil involved in a serious breach of discipline “will be invited to a meeting with the year head and the principal or deputy principal . . . The details of the breach will be read to the parents and the pupil’s contribution to the school . . . in the past will be taken into account”.

That doesnt appear to have happened in the majority of cases. You either have a code of conduct, or you dont.

Without knowing exactly what was in the schools "Code of Conduct" - we might assume that it allowed a school to react accordingly to any incidents and meter out punishments as soon as possible - if only to get them over and done with!
The above would make sense to me, to be honest.

As some irate parents are pushing the issue, it then comes an no surprise that the school had to then later arrange meeting(s) to further explain the whole mess which some parents own offspring started in the first place or later participated in.

It would come as no surprise to most parents I suspect, that punishments be handed out as soon as possible - then later the parents (when times later can be arranged) are requested to attend a meeting, if only to have the rules reinforced upon their memory.

drkpower · 18-08-2012 02:40PM

Biggins wrote: »

You know what was in their "Code of Conduct" ?

Yes, it was quoted in the IT article and it is freely available on the net. Try google.

As i said, it suggests that the parents of any pupil involved in a serious breach of discipline “will be invited to a meeting with the year head and the principal or deputy principal . . . The details of the breach will be read to the parents and the pupil’s contribution to the school . . . in the past will be taken into account”.

That doesnt appear to have happened in the majority of cases.

Biggins · 18-08-2012 02:48PM

drkpower wrote: »

Yes, it was quoted in the IT article and it is freely available on the net. Try google.

As i said, it suggests that the parents of any pupil involved in a serious breach of discipline “will be invited to a meeting with the year head and the principal or deputy principal . . . The details of the breach will be read to the parents and the pupil’s contribution to the school . . . in the past will be taken into account”.

That doesnt appear to have happened in the majority of cases.

Time was clearly a factor here as exams were coming up. Punishments would have to be metered out immediately. That much is very obvious to most.

It would be ruddy stupid to tell an ex-pupil six months later after they had ultimately left, that they were suspended! Eh?

Chuck Stone · 18-08-2012 02:53PM

You must not challenge authority - you must submit.

The school overreacted imo - it's a bunch of young people listening to music not a fucking prison riot.

I hate authoritarians.

starbelgrade · 18-08-2012 02:54PM

Feckin Southsiders.

Capt'n Midnight · 18-08-2012 02:54PM

How could they arrange meetings with parents and go through the full process with 2.5 days left in the year ?

Even if they could what sanction could they apply - apart from denying access to the examination centre or refusing to supply good references (illegal in Germany - here ?)

Parents of suspended Leaving Cert pupils to take legal action

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