A front-page report today by the Irish Independent’s Legal Affairs Editor, Shane Phelan reveals that an affidavit filed with the High Court last August by Wilson Hospital School chairman, John Rogers stated a meeting took place the previous May between the student, their parents and then principal Niamh McShane who was advised the student wanted to transition and to be addressed by a new name and pronoun going forward.
The parent of the child involved did not know until January that it was their child that is the subject of the High Court proceedings being taken by the school against Enoch Burke.
In an email in January to Frank Milling, the school’s current principal, the parent said they only learned “the child in question is my child” after reading a court judgment which outlined what year the unidentified student was in.
The parent also said their child had never requested they be called by the “they/them pronoun”.
The email from the parent also clarified that there was no principal or deputy principal at the meeting and only one parent attended the meeting.
Frank Milling was given leave by the High Court to file corrective affidavits arising from the email he received from the parent.
His affidavit corrects claims made by Rogers last August in his affidavit filed to the court when the school sought and was granted an injunction against Enoch Burke entering school grounds.
In a responding affidavit ahead of a full trial later this month, Enoch Burke the suspended teacher at the centre of this debacle says the orders secured against him were obtained on the basis of “false statements” and that he believes the parent of the pupil who attended the meeting had no desire to see the school litigate or take disciplinary action against him.
