The principal of the fee-paying Dublin school, Alexandra College, confirmed yesterday that 14 second-year students were suspended for 2½ days before Christmas, and 20 more were given detention, after accessing an internet website which enables students to engage in so-called "cyber bullying".
Marian Healy told The Irish Times that she was heartbroken to discover that 13- and 14-year-old students at the school had been using the website, hateboard.com.
Some of the students used the site to leave offensive, anonymous comments and suggestions about pupils in their own and other schools.
Other students informed the school authorities that they had accessed the site to read what was being said, or to write comments in support of students who had been criticised on the website.
Messages on the website yesterday show that students from several other schools are still using the site. "I was heartbroken but, having said that, every experience has to be a learning experience. Schools and parents have to be constantly keeping abreast of what's going on," Ms Healy said.
Alexandra College moved to address the issue before Christmas after a student told college authorities of her concerns that the website might impact on particularly vulnerable students.
Fourteen students were given the temporary suspension in the run-up to the Christmas holidays, while some 20 others were given three hours' detention.
This followed a meeting with all second years, attended by senior staff members, at which students who had accessed the site were encouraged to own up, and to write down the level of their involvement.
The school also sent out a letter to parents advising them of the situation, and offering advice on how to monitor their children's use of the internet.
"The students only accessed the site on one day in the school itself, so it seems it was initialised at home. When it came to our attention, we blocked the site, so nobody could access it from the school," Ms Healy said. "I was dealing with parents of some students who were devastated and upset by the impact it could have on their own kids."
"Parents should be very vigilant as to where computers are kept in their homes.We are now living in a digital age and the people who are most involved in this digital age are young people and teenagers."
Mary McGlynn, director of the National Association of Principals' and Deputy Principals, yesterday expressed her concern for both the victims and the authors of the offensive comments.
"We would have very deep concern for the vulnerability of the individual students concerned," she said. "There is probably a 'herd instinct' in this but you can't expect the school to rectify, once again, another of the ills of society."
"I would be concerned for the recipients, and for the people who gang up and who are doing [ the writing]."