Ex-principal frustrated by inaction

A RETIRED school principal has told of his frustration at the inaction of health authorities for two years over his reports that a pupil was being sexually abused at home.

The former primary headmaster, who did not want to be named to protect the family’s identity, said he and his staff were almost convinced that the boy was being abused because of his strange and dangerous behaviour in school.

“I took a knife off him one day, and another time he was found trying to interfere with other children. We had to make sure he was constantly supervised and never left alone every minute of every day he was at school,” he told the Irish Examiner. The principal reported it very early on to the HSE but learned that there was no strategy to intervene.