External security for schools will have to be given priority by planning and education authorities to ensure the safety of children, and stop unauthorised incursions on to schoolyards, the principal of a primary school at the centre of an air pistol incident earlier this week has said.
The all-Irish primary school, Scoil Mhic Easmainn, in Tralee, is now employing private security after a 16-year-old came into the schoolyard and injured a 10-year-old boy in the head with a pellet from an illegal air-pistol.
The 16-year-old boy was not a past pupil of the school and was not known to the school authorities.
Security personnel from a private firm are on duty during school hours and during break times to supplement teacher supervision and protect children from external threats.
Schools do not get grants for security personnel and parents will have to raise the money themselves, the principal, Ms Máiréad Ní Chaomhánaigh de Hóra, said.
The air pistol incident is only the latest in a series of security threats at the school along with what she described as "sporadic outbreaks" of vandalism.
There have been incidents of loitering and strangers are able to wander in at will on to the schoolyard. During one summer holiday windows were broken in the school.
The school had applied for planning permission seven years ago for perimeter fencing but was turned down by Tralee UDC and refused again when it appealed to An Bord Pleanála. The planning authorities refused on the grounds of visual impact, Ms Ní Chaomhánaigh de Hóra said.
"This is not an issue for our Scoil Mhic Easmainn alone. Security is an issue for all schools. Planning will have to take into account the safety of children as well as visual appearance," she said.
The relationship between local residents and the all-Irish school was good, she said.