Praise for ETB’s response to tragic deaths
There was high praise for school staff and and the wider ETB organisation for their response to the tragic road accident in August that claimed the lives of local students Kiea McCann (17) and Dalava Mohammed (16).
Two more students were also treated in hospital for serious injuries when the car carrying five crashed on the N54 outside Clones on the way to the Largy College Debs.
At a meeting of the CMETB executive at the Garage Theatre in Monaghan last week, the first since the accident and following the Summer recess, Sinn Féin’s Colm Carthy said that the tragedy at Legnakelly on the Clones to Smithborough Road was one that “reverberated around the country. I think every parent in Ireland held their child a little bit closer to them that night”.
Speaking after CMETB formally expressed condolences to all of the families involved, Cllr Carthy was effusive in his praise for how the school community and wider community reacted to the dreadful events at they unfolded.
He said the critical incident response protocol rolled out by Largy College and the ETB was “depended upon” both by the students, the staff and the people of Clones Town and its environs in the hours and days that followed the tragedy.
Board member Joe McGrath agreed. He said it had been a “traumatic time” for everyone in Clones, and though reluctant to single out any individual effort, he credited the leadership shown by Largy principal Sharon Magennis at the time.
As a Board of Management patron to Largy, he recalled how she spoke to the nation about the harrowing loss after meeting buses of devastated children as they returned to the school on what should have been one of the best nights of their lives.
“She did a brilliant job representing CMETB,” he said, acknowledging that “a lot of responsibility fell on her”.
He highlighted the combined effort, from the principal to the caretakers, who attended the school out of hours to open facilities. “I compliment her, the teachers and the staff,” he continued, saying they kept the school open until the early hours of the morning and again the next day. “They went above and beyond.”
Fine Gael’s Carmel Brady sadly highlighted how the ETB’s critical incident response had to be used elsewhere, including at Breifne College in Cavan Town, since the return of the school year and following the sudden death of teenager Dayle Reilly.
She described as “unfortunate” that the protocol had been necessary so often in recent years, with Fianna Fáil’s Patricia Walsh saying that the support shown to staff and students was “second to none”.
Sean Fagan asked if the ETB had its own support service structure available for staff. Chief Executive Fiona McGrath confirmed that it had.
The executive, it was also learned through Director of Schools, Paddy Flood, reached out with support following the deaths of four young people in a road crash in Tipperary later in the month while on their way to exam celebrations.
Driver Luke McSweeney (24) and three passengers, including his sister Grace McSweeney (18) and teenagers Zoey Coffey and Nicole Murphy (both also 18) all lost their lives.
Mr Flood said the ETB had made contact with the ETBs operating in Tipperary and other connected organisation offering support should they need it.
Michelle Flynn told those at the meeting that school guidance councillors at schools would “meet to talk and learn from each other”, and that this was an integral part of the process of how to garner learning from each critical incident after it happens.
She recognised that the Clones crash had happened outside of term time, yet the school itself became a central focus in terms of bringing the community together as one. “You just don’t know when things like that are going to happen,” she said.