A school principal has launched a High Court action aimed at overturning the teacher regulatory body’s finding of poor professional performance against him.
The finding was made over failing to inform an autistic pupil’s parents about a complaint that a teacher allegedly mistreated the student for several months.
The principal claims the Teaching Council, which sanctioned him by way of a formal admonishment, made findings in breach of fair procedures and without giving adequate reasons.
The court heard the principal’s case is supported by the Irish Primary School Principal’s Network.
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It described the council’s findings as having a “chilling effect” for principals and being fundamentally at odds with existing regulations and procedures governing child protection in schools.
The parties in the case cannot be identified by order of the court.
The court heard the principal was the subject of a complaint arising out of an incident that occurred in 2019, where it was claimed that a non-verbal child with autism at the school was shouted at and roughly handled by a teacher.
A parent of the child made complaints in late 2019 to the council, which resulted in investigations into both the teacher and principal.
The teacher was cleared of all the allegations.
In relation to the principal, a Teaching Council committee heard earlier this year that the applicant became aware of the matter in February 2019 but did not inform the child’s parents until June of that year.
The committee heard the principal had investigated the alleged incident involving the student and teacher but did not make any finding against the teacher having found no corroborating evidence to support the claims of wrongdoing.
The principal did put a monitoring system in place as a protective measure and told the parents about the allegations some months later.
During the hearing, the child’s mother said she knew about the allegation concerning her child within a short time after it allegedly occurred.
The council made a finding that the principal had engaged in poor professional performance and went to impose a sanction of admonishing him.
He claims the council fell into significant legal error by placing the burden of proof, which in this matter is beyond reasonable doubt, on him.
He claims he was required to convince the council in relation to his motivation and justification of his actions regarding the allegation.
The principal also claims there was an unreasonable five-year delay by the council which resulted in considerable prejudice to him and affected his health and wellbeing.
Represented by Helen Callanan SC, with Conor Duff BL, the principal has brought judicial review proceedings against the Teaching Council seeking an order quashing the its findings and sanction.
He also seeks a declaration from the court that the delay in handling the complaint against the applicant amounted to a breach of his rights.
He further seeks an order preventing the reinvestigation of the complaint against him.
The matter came before Ms Justice Niamh Hyland on Monday, who on an ex parte basis, granted the principal permission to bring his action.
The matter will return before the High Court later this month.
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