Minister to reinstate teacher suspended for assault

A TEACHER who was found by a tribunal of inquiry to have harassed and assaulted five of his girl students is to be reinstated, the Minister for Education has decided.

Ms Breathnach has told the local VEC that the teacher should be allowed to return to work in a different school. The man was suspended some time ago after a number of pupils in a school in which he worked as a substitute made allegations against him.

In response to a report drawn up by the Department of Education inspector who conducted the inquiry, the Minister has ordered that two pay increments due to the teacher be delayed.

In a letter sent to the VEC last Friday, Ms Breathnach said her Department was putting in place a "monitoring programme involving two inspectors. The teacher, whose reinstatement has been backdated to June 24th last, will start work again next month.

The VEC considered the Minister's decision at a special meeting held yesterday.

They report by the inspector, Mr Sean O Broin, deals with a number of classroom incidents which the five girls making the allegations claimed amounted to "improper touching". The teacher has always denied all allegations against him.

Mr O Broin found the teacher did not exercise due care or take into full account the sensitivities arid feelings of the young girls in moving or pulling them from their work and/or assisting them. In not being "ultra careful", his hand contacted their breasts.

"I cannot conclude beyond reasonable doubt that there was a sexual motive or a planned desire or improper intention or a compulsive element to the touching/ contacts which were made with the girls' breasts," the inspector stated. "Therefore I do not conclude that the touching/contacts which were used amounted to sexual abuse."

However, the report says the methods the teacher used were "fraught with risks of being misinterpreted as improper and they did result in the five girls having their breasts touched, becoming distressed and upset and having genuine feelings of being touched ... with improper motives".

Mr O Broin concludes that the touching was unnecessary and did "technically constitute an assault" on each of the five girls. The teacher's "persistent" method of approach and touching also amounted to harassment.

The report also concludes that the teacher's teaching methods were "not conducive to producing a happy classroom environment where good teaching and learning would take place". There was a breakdown of communications between the school management and the teacher.

The teacher, who has the full support of his union, the Teachers' Union of Ireland, has been suspended on full pay since the allegations were first made. The claims by a number of second year pupils were investigated by the local health board.

The board's medical officer for public health then wrote to the chief executive officer of the local VEC. The doctor's assessment, as quoted in the report, was that three children had confirmed the allegations, indicating that the abuse involved inappropriate sexual touching. This abuse had caused distress to the children involved.

In the doctor's assessment, the children's accounts were credible.

Local gardai were then called in to investigate. The Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Last November, the Minister ordered the establishment of the sworn inquiry under Mr O Broin. The teacher and the girls making the allegations were legally represented. A psychologist who gave evidence said the teacher's account of what happened was credible.

Mr O Broin submitted his report to Ms Breathnach in April. The Minister's recommendation was presented to a VEC meeting in July.

A spokesman for the Department confirmed that an in camera inquiry had taken place and had found against the teacher. A "punishment" was then imposed. The VEC, not the Minister, was the direct employer of the teacher, he added.