A teacher told the High Court yesterday she had not been told a young girl in her school was covered with bruises. If she had, she would have investigated it, Sister Gemma, a teacher at Scoil Nano Nagle, Clondalkin, Dublin, said.
Sister Gemma also said she had not told Nicola Mulvey's mother that the child had been boxed and kicked in the school yard. The first suggestion she had heard that the girl had been attacked by four or eight other children was during the court hearing, she said.
The nun was giving evidence on the fourth day of the action by Nicola, now aged 10, and suing by her mother, Ms Margaret Mulvey, Ashwood Avenue, Clondalkin.
The action is against Scoil Nano Nagle where Nicola was a pupil in the school year 1997-98. The school denies claims of negligence or breach of duty.
During her evidence last week, Ms Mulvey said that when she went to collect Nicola at the school on June 25th, 1998, Sister Gemma had initially told her Nicola was very tired and sick and later told her Nicola had been boxed and kicked that day.
Yesterday, Sister Gemma, who described Nicola as a "lovely little girl", said her first memory of Ms Mulvey coming to her and actually mentioning a child's name in relation to an incident about Nicola's trousers bottom being pulled down was in November 1997. Ms Mulvey had named a child as being responsible for the incident.
Sister Gemma said she took the report very seriously and sent for the mother of the child against whom the allegation had been made. The mother was very upset and the next day she and her daughter came to the school and they spoke with Ms Mulvey who had said afterwards that she was very happy with the outcome of the meeting.
Asked by Mr Finbarr Fox SC, for the defence, about a statement by Ms Mulvey that she had seen Nicola being attacked by other children in the yard, Sister Gemma said that had not been reported to her.
Sister Gemma said that if she had been on yard duty, she would find it very difficult to see how a child could have been attacked on an ongoing basis and she would not know about it.
If such events had been happening or reported, they would have been a matter of great concern. If she had been told that Nicola had been "laid into" by other children, she would have investigated the situation.
Sister Gemma said she had never experienced anything like an occasion in January 1998 in which Ms Mulvey came into the classroom when Nicola was absent and spoken to the other children. Sister Gemma said she was taken totally by surprise and did not want a confrontation in front of the children. She was in a very awkward position.
Asked about an incident involving Nicola's drink being taken, Sister Gemma said she made arrangements for the child's drink to be put in a place accessible only to Sister Gemma herself. She had no recollection of Nicola's lunch or lunch box ever being taken. If reports to that effect had been made, they would have been investigated.
On June 25th, 1996, Nicola was very flushed and tired when the children were getting their coats to go home, Sister Gemma said. Nicola had said somebody had hit her.
Sister Gemma asked the child named by Nicola about the matter and the child had denied it. She asked another child who nodded in the affirmative.
Sister Gemma said she told Ms Mulvey that Nicola was tired and flushed but she did not say anything about her being hit because she felt the matter had been dealt with. She said Nicola had not been boxed and kicked.
Cross-examined by Mr Patrick Keane SC, for Nicola, Sister Gemma said that the track suit trouser incident was an allegation and did not fit the definition of bullying which was systematic aggression.
Asked by Mr Keane was she saying Nicola was never bullied, Sister Gemma said said there were isolated instances. As she understood the definition of bullying, Nicola was not bullied.
Asked whether she knew that Ms Mulvey had complained six or seven times about bullying in the yard, Sister Gemma said she did not.
The hearing continues today.