SCHOOLS CANNOT be held liable for every child that is pushed and falls in the playground, a judge said yesterday.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane dismissed a claim for up to €38,000 damages taken on behalf of schoolboy Dylan Lumsden on the basis there had been inadequate supervision in the school playground when he was injured.
The judge heard that Dylan, of Castle Kevin Road, Kilmore, Dublin, had broken his right leg during a morning break at St David’s Boys’ National School, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin, more than two years ago.
Dylan told the Circuit Civil Court that in October 2006, when he was four, he was pushed from behind by another boy and knocked down.
Schoolteacher Gráinne Hyde said she had been supervising 90 children in the yard and did not see Dylan being pushed or falling. When she saw him on the ground there were no other children near him and he told her he had fallen.
School principal John McGarry told barrister Conor Halpin, counsel for the school, that children could be supervised on a one-to-one basis only if he had 90 teachers.
There was no doubt in his mind that the presence of one teacher constituted proper and adequate supervision in the yard. “Children push each other. Children fall. This was a simple if unfortunate accident and I cannot find any liability on the part of the school,” Judge Linnane said.
“Even if another child had pushed Dylan, I cannot see what the school could have done to prevent that.”
The judge awarded costs against Dylan’s mother Vivienne McCormack.