The Equality Authority has welcomed a finding by the Equality Tribunal that a primary school victimised a Traveller boy with a disability under the terms of the Equal Status Acts. The Board of Management of Scoil Lios Teilic in Kerry has been ordered to pay €6,350, the maximum allowed under the Acts, to the complainant. The complainant was represented by the Equality Authority.
The case was taken by a Traveller woman on behalf of her son. The Traveller boy has Kleinfelter’s Syndrome. He had previously been in attendance at another school. As a consequence of matters arising in that school the Traveller woman had lodged a complaint under the Equal Status Acts against that school and in December 2001 had removed her son from the school.
The Visiting Teacher had subsequently supported the Traveller woman to seek enrolment for her son in Scoil Lios Teilic. The initial response from the Principal of the school to this request had been positive. However the Board of Management then decided to refuse the application for enrolment.
The chairman of the Board of Management at Scoil Lios Teilic at the time was also chairman of the Board of the previous school attended by the Traveller boy and against which school a complaint under the Equal Status Acts had been lodged by the mother of the boy.
Victimisation is prohibited under the Equal Status Acts. It occurs where adverse treatment by, in this instance, an educational establishment is made as a reaction to a complaint of discrimination having been made to the Equality Tribunal.
The Equality Officer of the Equality Tribunal in finding that victimisation had occurred stated that she was satisfied that “the chairman of the Board of Management of the respondent school based his decision to refuse the enrolment of (the Traveller boy) on matters arising and ongoing at the time in the school at which the boy had previously attended”.
The Equality Officer, in making the maximum award, highlighted “the irreversible loss to (the Traveller boy) of the opportunity to avail of a primary education in a school of his mothers choosing and the consequent distress to (the Traveller boy).
Niall Crowley, chief executive officer of the Equality Authority welcomed the outcome of the case. He said that “this was a particularly serious case. A Traveller mother sought, on behalf of her son, to challenge discrimination in one school only to find, as a result, they were faced with further discrimination by another school. Discrimination in context of children and education is also particularly invidious in terms of its potential impact on future opportunities for the child.“
“The scale of the award made against Scoil Lios Teilic sends an important message to all schools that discrimination, including victimisation, under the Equal Status Acts by educational establishments is unacceptable and will prove costly. This is timely given that 18% (41out of 230 casefiles) of our current casefiles under the Equal Status Acts involve allegations of discrimination against primary and post primary schools. These casefiles are particularly prevalent on both the disability ground (9 casefiles) and the Traveller ground (12 casefiles)” he stated.
“This case highlights the need to monitor the experiences of the Traveller community in the school setting. A mere 3.5% of the Traveller community have completed education to post primary or higher levels. In such a context the growth in the entry of Travellers into the education system must be matched by a quality of experience within the education system that eradicates this huge educational disadvantage within the Traveller community” he concluded.
Ends