ONE boy has been expelled and three suspended at Parrenthorn High School, Prestwich, after being caught smoking drugs.

The four were caught smoking a substance - believed to be cannabis - in garages on a nearby housing estate last Thursday (April 17) lunchtime.

Head teacher Mr Arthur Francis said: "Once we discovered what had been going on we excluded all four boys for one day so that we could investigate.

"We involved the local education authority drugs advisor, Mr Ian Clements, and acted on his advice.

Mr Francis said that one boy had "a greater involvement" than the others in incident, and was excluded permanently. It is understood he actually had the substance, currently undergoing scientific tests, in his possession.

The other three were excluded for just one day and are now back in school. All four will be allowed to take their GCSE exams next month, despite the disciplinary action.

Said Mr Francis: "The boy is also being allowed back in school to complete course work he needs to do for his GCSEs."

The police have not been involved in the incident on the advice of Mr Clements, one of the country's leading experts on drug education.

"The pupils know what our policies are with this kind of issue," said Mr Francis. "We have established standards, and we stick to them, even, as with this case, if the incidents do not take place on school property."

He went on: "There is nothing to indicate that this is anything other than a one-off. And two of the boys, we are sure, have never been involved in this kind of thing before."

A parent of children at the school, who wished to remain anonymous, rang the when he heard about the incident. His children were not involved.

He said: "The head just seems to want to brush this under the carpet; he won't confront the issue."

But Mr Francis said the school had participated fully in all local drug education initiatives, and made pupils "aware of the dangers of drugs" in personal and social education lessons.

"I'm sure that is why we have had very few problems of this nature," he said.

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