A young girl who is suing her school for alleged failure to deal with alleged bullying of her told the High Court yesterday "things were fine" when she started school at the age of four.
However, three weeks later, the bullying started when some girls in her class began calling her names.
There were about seven girls involved and there were a total of 30 boys and girls in her class, said Nicola Mulvey, now aged 10. The name-calling began two weeks after she started and she felt "sore and down".
In 1997 she was hit over the head with a crayon board, pushed against the railings and pushed off a bench in the yard, Nicola said. A gang of girls would go around her in a circle and one of them would push her up against the railing. There were about seven girls involved.
"They would kick me and they would push me up against the railings. It would happen sometimes or all the time." It was painful and the punching was "like a needle". The pain would last two minutes on these occasions.
In reply to her counsel, Mr Richard McDonnell SC, Nicola said her legs would be bruised after the girls kicked her and they would also punch her in the stomach. This continued after Christmas. She got boxed in the ribs coming up to June 1998. Her lunch was often taken from her.
In one incident during the 11 a.m. break, she was punched in the ribs and back. About seven girls were involved and the incident lasted about two minutes. There was one teacher in the yard. At 1.00 p.m. she went home and felt sick. She told her mum she had been boxed in the stomach and went to sleep on the couch. She woke up screaming after 20 minutes and got sick. She was brought to hospital where she spent a few days.
Prof Mona O'Moore, a child and educational psychologist and co-ordinator of the Anti-Bullying Centre at Trinity College, Dublin, said Nicola was initially subjected to verbal abuse and that was the way bullying often started. When there was not sufficient intervention it could develop into physical abuse. Nicola would have felt very hurt.