Families 'too frightened' to remain in NI, says school principal

Some families from areas relatively unaffected by recent riots are still too frightened to remain in Northern Ireland.

That is according to a principal from south Belfast who told BBC News NI three families of pupils have left due to fear of the violence.

Hilary Cunningham is the principal of Fane Street Primary, one of the most diverse in Northern Ireland.

A number of families of pupils from the school were affected by previous riots after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast in 2024.

The Education Minister Paul Givan has said the number of pupils missing school has spiked near to where people rioted for several nights in Ballymena.

Givan also told MLAs on Monday that some schoolchildren had attacked the homes of their own classmates.

He named two schools, Harryville Primary and St Patrick's College in Ballymena, where he said rates of absence were particularly high.

Ms Cunningham told BBC News NI that she felt for schools in Ballymena and that schools often had to "pick up the pieces" for pupils and families.

"I think it's going to be very, very difficult for them to pick up the pieces, particularly as a number of families are so fearful that they've actually fled, so actually knowing whether those children are even going to come back, what they're going to come back to," she said.

"Are they going to have a home to come back to? It's a big, big issue for those schools."

Fane Street has employed a family support worker to help families, and also paid for a nurture room, so pupils can take time to get extra support if they need it.

The school was one of the first in Northern Ireland to be named a School of Sanctuary, which is one that provides significant additional support to pupils, including refugees and others who need a place of safety.

Ms Cunningham said some families of her pupils had faced violence and intimidation.

"Last year we had a family whose front door was burnt, we also had another family who has been intimidated quite recently," she said.

"Young lads standing outside the front door waiting for them when they come back in, and this is a woman on her own with two children, two young girls."

"So it's reassuring them, making sure that they're ok, that they know that not everybody is out to intimidate them, that we support them in any way that we possibly can."

Despite the fact that the recent rioting has been concentrated in Ballymena, Portadown and Londonderry Ms Cunningham said some families of her pupils were too frightened to stay in Northern Ireland.

"We've actually got three families that have gone to other countries because they are so frightened to stay and another little child from nursery who wouldn't come into school because the family were afraid to travel to school," she said.

"It is very difficult to deal with but we just support them as much as we can."

Police say 31 arrests have been made to date in relation to the recent racially-motivated disorder, with 23 people charged with various offences.