Chapter 17 — Primary and second-level schools

Witnesses

Sixty seven (67) of the 70 witnesses who reported abuse in primary and second-level schools were in the care of their parents at the time they experienced abuse in school. Fifty eight (58) witnesses lived at home with their families and attended day school and nine witnesses were in fee-paying boarding schools. Three (3) male witnesses were in out-of-home care, two of whom reported that they were placed in boarding schools by the authorities in their Industrial Schools. The other witness was resident in a Children’s Home and attended a primary school.

The official school leaving age prior to 1969 was 14 years. Table 101 illustrates the witnesses’ school leaving age reported at their hearing:

Age on leaving school	Males	Females	Total witnesses
<13 years	4	0	4
14 years	11	2	12
15 years	7	1	8
16 years	12	2	14
17 years	9	3	12
18+ years	13	5	18
Unavailable	0	1	1
Total	57	14	70

Three (3) of the four witnesses who reported leaving school at 13 years or under stated that they left for reasons associated with their special needs and the fourth left on completion of sixth class.

Record of abuse

The Committee heard 82 reports of abuse from 70 witnesses in relation to 73 different schools. The 82 witness reports of abuse in primary and second-level schools heard by the Committee related to a 60-year period between 1932 and1992. The report of abuse by a witness may either refer to descriptions of single episodes or to multiple experiences of being abused over time in a school. Witnesses reported physical and sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse. The frequency of witness reports about each school is as follows: Fifty one (51) primary schools were each the subject of a single report, the majority of which were mixed gender schools. Fourteen (14) second-level schools were each the subject of a single report, 12 of these were boys’ schools. Three (3) boys’ primary schools were the subject of two reports each, totalling six reports. Four (4) boys’ second-level schools were the subject of two reports each, totalling eight reports. One boys’ primary school was the subject of three reports.

Twelve (12) male witnesses reported abuse in more than one school. Nine (9) witnesses reported abuse in national and secondary schools and three reported abuse in two national schools. Evidence from five witnesses who also reported abuse in Children’s Homes, foster care and Industrial Schools is included in the relevant chapters of this Report.

The 82 witness reports of abuse varied over a period of seven decades, as follows: Twenty three (23) witness reports refer to witnesses who left school prior to 1960. Thirty four (34) witness reports refer to those who left school during the 1960s. Sixteen (16) witness reports refer to those who left school during the 1970s. Nine (9) witness reports refer to those who left school during the 1980s and 1990s.

Twenty five (25) of the 70 witnesses described experiences of abuse between 1970 and 1992, and more than half of the witness reports of sexual abuse relate to that period. Combinations of abuse types reported by the witnesses are illustrated in Table 102:

Abuse types and combinations	Number of reports
Physical	21
Sexual	17
Physical and emotional	12
Physical and sexual	11
Physical, neglect and emotional	6
Physical, sexual and emotional	5
Sexual and emotional	5
Physical, sexual, neglect and emotional	2
Emotional	2
Sexual and neglect	1
Total	82

The most frequently reported types of abuse were of physical and sexual abuse alone, of which there were 21 reports, 20 male and one female, and 17 reports, 15 male and two female, respectively. In addition there were high numbers of reports of physical abuse combined with either sexual abuse or emotional abuse. Many of the witnesses reported being abused on a daily basis while they were pupils in the class of particular teachers, including school Principals. Others reported acute single episodes of abuse in circumstances where they were isolated from their peer group.

Physical abuse

The wilful, reckless or negligent infliction of physical injury on, or failure to prevent such injury to, the child.3 This section describes witness reports of incidents of physical abuse, non-accidental injury, and lack of protection from harm. Witness evidence included reports of both single incidents and multiple episodes over time in a school. The forms of physical abuse reported included: beating, kicking, punching, and other bodily assaults.

The Committee heard 57 reports of physical abuse by 50 witnesses, 40 male and 10 female. The reports were in relation to primary and second-level schools, both day and boarding. Thirty nine (39) primary schools and 14 second-level schools, including one vocational/technical school, were the subject of physical abuse reports. Seven (7) witnesses reported physical abuse in two schools. Four (4) schools were each the subject of two reports of physical abuse.

In the majority of instances the abuse was reported to have occurred in the classrooms, corridors, and within the general school environs. Witnesses commonly reported being physically abused as a punishment for mistakes in lessons, not giving the correct answer in class, being unable to do school work to the required standard or for no reason they could understand. A witness described being punched, kicked and hit for failing to give a correct answer in class. Witnesses also reported being punched, beaten and stood on in the context of being sexually abused or for disclosing sexual abuse. There was a priest in ...named boarding school.... I was tiny, he beat the living crap out of me from the time I went in, for 3 years. He was Fr... X ... (Principal).... He was a bully and picked on me for no reason, he battered me for fun.

Witnesses described being beaten with leather straps, canes, wooden dusters, cricket bats, sally rods, and wooden sticks including chair legs and map poles. They reported being beaten on their hands, legs, on both covered and bare buttocks, and while held down on the desk. In addition to being hit with implements, male and female witnesses also reported being punched in the face, hit around the head, back and shoulders, pulled and lifted by their hair and ears, and kicked to the ground. The following is a report of physical abuse by a male religious teacher: He’d grab you by the hair like that and he’d pull you up to the blackboard by the hair. He’d grab me by the nose, eventually my nose was broken, the doctor confirmed for me the nose was broken .... He’d slap you on the bottom, pants was down, 4 slaps and he would always go up higher on the spine for the last 2 slaps. He’d tell you to pull trousers down and if you did not pull it down he’d pull it down ...

Witnesses commented that pupils who appeared to have learning difficulties or were from disadvantaged backgrounds were beaten and punished more severely than others. One witness described a pupil with learning difficulties being beaten regularly on the back of the hands for not holding his hand up high enough. Another witness stated that ‘...it depended on your family, or where you came from, ... maybe people that were not that well-educated, or that were not that assertive...’ were more vulnerable to abuse.

Ten (10) male witnesses reported being distressed while in the class of specific teachers in primary school due to the constant, and at times severe, physical abuse. They described a general atmosphere of fear where physical abuse was unpredictable, for reasons they could not understand, and at times in association with sexual abuse. Four (4) male witnesses gave accounts of being beaten or kicked to the ground. One witness stated that he and another pupil were often selected for beatings because they were the biggest boys in the class ‘I was beaten into a heap on the floor for no reason except my height’. Another witness reported that on an occasion when a leather strap was not available the teacher tore the wooden roller from the wall map, broke it in half and hit everyone in the class.

Two (2) of the above witnesses who gave evidence of severe physical abuse described constant beatings. One stated that the teacher insisted that he sat at the end of a row of desks and as he passed said; ‘Are you paying attention? ... and with that his foot would go out and he’d give me a kick on the shin’. The witness reported the Brother said prior to beating him on the bare buttocks ‘I hate your guts. I’ll give you something to remember for the rest of your life’. The other witness stated that he and his fellow pupils were either made to stand at the back of the class or lie across their desks waiting to be beaten.