AN APPEAL by a 13-year-old Traveller against a Circuit Court decision depriving him of admission to a Co Tipperary secondary school has been adjourned by the High Court until September 29th.
Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, who is hearing an appeal against the lower court’s decision, yesterday asked counsel in the case to prepare written legal submissions for him over the weekend.
The High Court has heard that John Stokes failed to gain admission to Clonmel Christian Brothers secondary school because his father was not a former pupil.
His mother, Mary Stokes, had appealed the school’s decision to the Equality Tribunal under the Equal Status Act. Her appeal had been upheld on the grounds John may have been indirectly discriminated against because he is a Traveller.
The tribunal decision was overturned by Judge Tom Teehan in the Circuit Civil Court in Clonmel and that decision has, in turn, been appealed to the High Court.Judge Teehan decided the school’s decision was justified and overturned the ruling of the tribunal.
The court has heard John met two of the three criteria regarding admission – that he was a Catholic and that he had attended a feeder school in the area. He had been rejected on the grounds his father had not been a former pupil.
Senior counsel Cormac Ó Dulachain has claimed the lower court judge erred in law by ruling that the school’s admission policy was justified on the basis of supporting family ethos when the true aim was to afford an advantage to the children of past pupils.