A SCHOOL has put up a plaque and planted a bush to commemorate the life of a pupil who died after a drugs overdose.

The pupils and staff of Darwen Moorland High School decided that they wanted to honour Melissa Strickson, 13, and staged a sponsored silence.

The money raised went towards a plaque for the year nine art block and a bush that was planted in the school grounds at the front of the school.

Melissa, from Tythebarn Street, Darwen, died at Sally Corkhill's flat in Darwen last October after she took about 100 pain killers that were prescribed to Corkhill.

Andrew Rigby, a history teacher and head of Melissa's year, said: "The day after she died there was a special assembly and then we held another one just before a sponsored silence.

"We might do something else but it hasn't been decided yet."

Mr Bridges has sent a letter of condolences to Melissa's parents, Victor and Sue, and revealed that the school was planning to honour her.

Preston Crown Court heard how Melissa was, according to her own mother, a tearaway who was beyond parental control.

In the term before her death she had a recorded attendance at school of just 22 per cent.

Corkhill, a self-confessed white witch, is waiting to be sentenced after she pleaded guilty to charges of child abduction and the supplying of controlled drugs.

She will be sentenced along with lover Lee Harrison, 31, of the same address, who has already admitted four charges of child abduction.