THE FALLOUT from last week’s announcement St Mary’s High School in Brollagh is to close for good, is continuing, with vows of boycotts and threats of legal action.
Last week Education Minister Peter Weir announced that his department had rejected proposals to give St Mary’s integrated status and the school would be closing in August. Since then there has been outrage across the county at the decision.
Now one local group has vowed to withhold financial support for the local Catholic church, in protest at what they said has been the lack of support from the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) over the past 20 years.
Francis Maguire, PRO of the Save St Mary’s Action Group, said parents were “furious.”
“We do not withhold money from the church lightly, but we have encountered nothing but condescension, obstruction and total negativity from the CCMS over many years,” said Mr Maguire, who said they had been “left in the lurch.”
Stating the group was considering legal action regarding the Department of Education’s decision, Mr Maguire added parents were also angry that the Education Authority (EA) had called them to get them to change the admission forms they had already completed to send their children to Brollagh in September. He said parents had been upset at the tone of the calls, and that they were contacted at 7pm in the evening.
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