This article is from page 3 of the 2006-09-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE principal of Scariff National School said yesterday that pupils have coped extremely well in their response to the death of 26-year-old circus performer, Vitaly Kharapavitski, last Monday night.
At the Royal Russian Circus performance last Monday, an audience of more than 300 people, with more than half young children, witnessed the Russian man dying instantly during a mid-air routine with his wife Sasha after a steel ball and metal cage collapsed on top of him.
Many of the 152 pupils that attend Scariff National School witnessed the tragedy and school principal, Martin Scanlan, said they coped extremely well and there was no serious need for the counselling services.
“I have three names of children that may avail of counselling, but I believe that it is unlikely that they will do so.”
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the HSE confirmed that its psychologist services have been made available to local primary schools as well as Scariff Community College.
A HSE spokeswoman said, “The Senior Clinical Psychologist has spoken to school principals and parish priest to outline the services which can be provided to the children if a need emerges. He has been in contact with the National Educational Psychology Service (NEPS), who will also be in a position to provide services if the need emerges.”
The father of two young children who witnessed last Monday night’s tragedy, Patrick Doyle, welcomed the services being made available by the HSE.
He said, “The kids might say ‘I’m okay’ to me, but at least with a counsellor, they may be more willing to talk about what happened.
“After it happened, I told my two children that ‘it’s a bad part of the act’ and left the tent…Everyone was stunned. There were kids crying leaving the tent and they were obviously traumatised.
“I never saw anything like it before. It was the suddenness of it. Everything came crashing down and I would say that the poor man died instantly from the impact. Everyone was in shock and I saw people coming out of the tent pure pale, with the blood drained from their faces.”
Local county councillor Joe Cooney said, “Scariff is a small rural parish and nothing like this has ever happened here. It is an awful tragedy and is very distressing for the children who witnessed the man’s death.”