Madam, - If Vincent Browne handed up his column of January 26th to a media studies teacher, I'd imagine that the comment at the end might read, "Practice what you preach".
Mr Browne presents us with the following scenario: a 14 year old girl of his acquaintance told him that she and two of her friends were severely sanctioned by a teacher for a trivial misdemeanour, related to opening a window "the wrong way".
According to Mr Browne, the trio had to write out the rules of the school five times, which took "five to six hours" and were kept in detention for "several hours after the others had gone home". He tells us there was no due process applied: no fair procedure; no attempt to invite the students' point of view. There was no attempt to "evaluate fairly" the conduct of the students. To misquote Oscar Wilde, "a school that treats students like this doesn't deserve to have any".
The problem I have with this story is that Mr Browne never investigates the allegations at all. Amazingly, he goes on to make the very same mistakes he accuses the teachers of making.
He doesn't apply due process; he doesn't follow fair procedure; he doesn't get the teacher's point of view. He writes at length about inequality, but fails to treat the student and the teacher equally. The story wasn't corroborated.
Let's look at the story again. Most schools of my acquaintance would have a dozen rules on an A4 page. For argument's sake, we'll say that the school in question had double that. How could it take up to six hours to write 144 lines? Secondly, I know of no school that operates detention for "several hours" at a time. Perhaps all this did take place, but, unlike Mr Browne, I'll keep my open mind until I hear both sides of the story.
Mr Browne understandably shows compassion towards a young acquaintance, but spares no thought for the effect his story would have on the teacher. Surely he is aware that this one-sided version could now become the accepted truth in the school's community.
The very man who states in the same column that "no one is endowed with arbitrary power over others", doesn't hesitate to act as judge, jury and executioner through the arbitrary power of his pen. - Yours, etc.,
JIM O'CONNELL, The Paddock, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7.
Madam, - First of all I would like to thank Vincent Browne for highlighting the problem of discipline in schools, even though I do not agree with his analysis. Sections 28 and 29 of the Education Act 1998 dictate the process which all schools have to go through now in discipline matters. Needless to say "due process" is always involved.
Last year, as President of the ASTI, I met the representatives of the Secondary Students Union and we agreed that the main problems in secondary schools today are: binge drinking, drugs and stress on students due to points pressure. In my opinion the main problems with regard to discipline and disruptive students stem from the binge drinking and drug culture that is part of 21st-century Ireland. Recent statistics have shown that we are top of the league with regard to drugs and drink. We have a major problem here and schools are barely keeping the lid on it at the moment.
The cost of alcohol abuse in Ireland is estimated by the European Comparative Alcohol Study at €2.4 billion annually, about 1.7 per cent of gross domestic product, a figure that doesn't include costs such as health care, road accidents, alcohol-related crime and lost productivity. Something has to be done here and done quickly - and please, not another report. - Yours, etc.,
PAT CAHILL, Whitehall Road, Terenure, Dublin 12.
