Ms Rachel O'Connor:

I echo Mr. White's comments about racism. Going back to the Deputy's first point on bullying in the online space, I agree it has been prolific in the past 15 months. However, in my experience over the past 15 months, what I was dealing with in school moved to the online space, and when we came back to school it moved back into school and the physical space, give or take a certain percentage. We have all of our systems in place, all of my staff are trained in restorative practice, we have our student support team and everything in place in the physical space in the building. However, when we moved to the online space, we were told overnight to change our practices and move online, but there was no supporting material, guidelines, or etiquette. Principals were sitting at their laptops, coming up with etiquette. It is much more difficult to monitor, intervene and, for example, to get two teenagers and parents involved to resolve bullying issues online. Bullying happens continuously, but it ebbs and flows. It was exacerbated by the fact we were working remotely.

In respect of data, I agree completely with the Deputy. At every board of management meeting I attend, I provide data. They are not broken down as the Deputy has proposed, but I state how many cases of bullying have occurred, if they have been resolved, and if they have not been resolved since the previous board meeting, I outline why this has not happened. I must justify that as a school leader. The data sit with the board of management. I do not understand why they are not sent somewhere else or why they are not gathered by the Department for analysis to get real raw data to put supports and resources in place for schools. We are reporting the data, but they remain with the board.