Pregnant teenager not admitted to school

YoMammaSo · by **YoMammaSo** » Mon Apr 30, 2022 11:40 am

I think this story is disgusting and the actions of that school/ principal are appauling ! Sounds like a "Our sh!t dont stink" school that I went to!
Imagine in this day and age treating someone like that. It has to infringe on equal rights or something?

Anne Cordelia Shirley · by **Anne Cordelia Shirley** » Mon Apr 30, 2022 12:19 pm

YoMammaSo wrote:I think this story is disgusting and the actions of that school/ principal are appauling ! Sounds like a "Our sh!t dont stink" school that I went to!
Imagine in this day and age treating someone like that. It has to infringe on equal rights or something?

Schools are exempt from the Equal Status Act. We got a derogation from Europe to allow Irish schools to discriminate on grounds of ethos. For example, a Catholic school can refuse to employ a gay person, someone who is divorced or an unmarried woman as it would affect the ethos of the school. It seems this is what this school is relying on, the girl in question defies the ethos so wouldn't be admitted.

Busbybabe · by **Busbybabe** » Mon Apr 30, 2022 12:32 pm

This story has just made me so angry!
I really can't believe this school is being let away with this. It's 2012 for christ sake >:o(

My Great Granny got pregnant at 15 at the turn of the 20th c. Her parents supported (thankfully they had the good sense not to send her away!) her and she was allowed keep my GrandUncle. She eventually went on to get married, had more children and had a happy life. She was one of the lucky ones!
20 years ago a girl in my secondary school got pregnant (rural sceondary school) and kept attending school until she decided to take time off later in the pregnancy. It was a big talking point sure, but nobody bothered her.
Wonder is it this school!
http://www.stjosephscollege.ie/parent-interests/school-rules.html

Flower Girl · by **Flower Girl** » Mon Apr 30, 2022 12:38 pm

My (convent) school must have had something in the water, there were at least 8 or 10 pregnancies while I was between 3rd and 6th year, say. All the girls continued coming to school, continued wearing the uniform (as long as it fit) and they all did their exams. The school was really supportive and did everything it could to keep their education going, and there was surprisingly little gossip or stigma from what I can remember (at this stage I hadn't even kissed a guy yet, so this was a whole other world for me...).

YoMammaSo · by **YoMammaSo** » Thu May 03, 2022 7:27 am

Anne Cordelia Shirley wrote:
YoMammaSo wrote:I think this story is disgusting and the actions of that school/ principal are appauling ! Sounds like a "Our sh!t dont stink" school that I went to!
Imagine in this day and age treating someone like that. It has to infringe on equal rights or something?

Schools are exempt from the Equal Status Act. We got a derogation from Europe to allow Irish schools to discriminate on grounds of ethos. For example, a Catholic school can refuse to employ a gay person, someone who is divorced or an unmarried woman as it would affect the ethos of the school. It seems this is what this school is relying on, the girl in question defies the ethos so wouldn't be admitted.

Why though ? Why is a School ( a place thats supposed to be helping form young minds and opinions and set a good example) allowed to be homophobic, against divorced, unmarried women, young mothers.

It doesnt make any sense to me !

Anne Cordelia Shirley · by **Anne Cordelia Shirley** » Thu May 03, 2022 7:39 am

YoMammaSo wrote:
Anne Cordelia Shirley wrote:
YoMammaSo wrote:I think this story is disgusting and the actions of that school/ principal are appauling ! Sounds like a "Our sh!t dont stink" school that I went to!
Imagine in this day and age treating someone like that. It has to infringe on equal rights or something?

Schools are exempt from the Equal Status Act. We got a derogation from Europe to allow Irish schools to discriminate on grounds of ethos. For example, a Catholic school can refuse to employ a gay person, someone who is divorced or an unmarried woman as it would affect the ethos of the school. It seems this is what this school is relying on, the girl in question defies the ethos so wouldn't be admitted.

Why though ? Why is a School ( a place thats supposed to be helping form young minds and opinions and set a good example) allowed to be homophobic, against divorced, unmarried women, young mothers.

It doesnt make any sense to me !

Because the churches want to preserve their right to teach the ethos. Like it or not, its a teaching of the Catholic church that sex before marriage is a sin. So by facilitating someone who's an obvious sinner, a Catholic school would and could argue its violating its ethos. In a similar vein, its difficult to deal with homophonic bullying in Catholic schools (especially all male) because its a teaching that homosexuality is a grave disorder, so to normalise it would go against Catholic teaching.
A lot of those teachings are very uncomfortable for people, but they are Catholic teachings and often reiterated by the pope. Another example would be IVF or the use of contraption which have been condemned by the pope so schools could argue they shouldn't be teaching about it in science or biology classes in a school with a Catholic ethos.

YoMammaSo · by **YoMammaSo** » Thu May 03, 2022 7:49 am

I wish the church would just Feck off !

I watched the programme on rte last nite, it was disgusting- but thats a whole other thread !

HeidiHigh · by **HeidiHigh** » Thu May 03, 2022 8:30 pm

I went to the school in question! Believe me, this story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the attitudes of the principal. I'm surprised that the girl's parents even wanted her to attend this school given his reputation (trust me, everybody in the catchment area knows this man). Nothing or nobody would stop him from making her daily school life a struggle even if she had been admitted. I'm glad the ombudsman is addressing the matter but given previous incidents in the school I would be very surprised if it makes a difference.

theoracle · by **theoracle** » Fri May 04, 2022 10:12 am

HeidiHigh wrote:I went to the school in question! Believe me, this story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the attitudes of the principal. I'm surprised that the girl's parents even wanted her to attend this school given his reputation (trust me, everybody in the catchment area knows this man). Nothing or nobody would stop him from making her daily school life a struggle even if she had been admitted. I'm glad the ombudsman is addressing the matter but given previous incidents in the school I would be very surprised if it makes a difference.

It sounds like he has a nice little dictatorship going....would explain his unwillingness to involve a board of management! Will be interesting to see if this is taken forward by the Ombudsman, it coudl be just a flash in the pan...

HeidiHigh · by **HeidiHigh** » Fri May 04, 2022 2:40 pm

'Dictatorship' is the perfect word Oracle. He owns the school and has supposedly retired as principal but remains as 'manager'. However your word describes the situation more accurately. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

jezabelle · by **jezabelle** » Sun May 06, 2022 12:08 am

It’s such a pity this kind of carry on is still continuing I was 15 when I was pregnant and had my daughter and have to say in the convent I attended they were super, even to the point that my parents had paid for my transition year trip away and my DD was about 5mths old and they said I could bring her with me and the teachers would mind her if I wanted!! I didn’t want to go tho, cos I felt I would be talked about and didn’t feel I was ready to go away with DD without my parents help.
Reality was that everyone at the school was super and I’m so lucky I attended that particular school.

They gave me most of transition year off when I had her and welcomed me back as a normal student when I returned and I continued until I sat my leaving, It’s a pity that it’s always a few that bring the catholic church down!! As my principal said it’s an all-girls school there will always be girls who get pregnant!! And a nun said to me we see a lot worse on missions!!

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