An army of minders would be required to prevent schoolchildren from placing themselves in danger, a judge said yesterday.
Judge Liam Devally threw out a teenager's £30,000 claim for damages against his former school, and asked if taxpayers were expected to pay the colossal bill of ensuring schoolchildren did not break rules to their detriment.
He told Jamie Dowie (17), of The Cloisters, Terenure, Dublin, he was satisfied he had known he was breaking school rules by going into an area that was out of bounds during lunch.
He was told Jamie seriously injured his teeth and face when he fell 16 feet from a banister onto a marble stairwell at De La Salle College, Churchtown, Dublin, in December 1996.
The judge directed Jamie's mother to pay the college's legal costs.
