EXPELLED STUDENTS ALLOWED TO RETURN TO SCHOOL

Two Leaving Cert students expelled from their private Dublin school
for smoking cannabis outside school hours are to be readmitted to the
school in the new year "on stringent conditions", the High Court was
told yesterday.

Both boys have apologised for their actions.

The students brought court proceedings last month seeking to overturn
their expulsions, imposed the day after a teacher discovered they had
smoked cannabis at a private party in a bar outside Dublin.

Mr Justice Kearns adjourned his decision on a number of occasions to
enable discussions between the parents and children and school's board
of governors.

Yesterday, Mr Diarmuid Rossa Phelan, for the boys, told the judge the
case had been settled. He expressed the gratitude of the parents and
the boys for the access they had been afforded by the court. Mr
Michael Howard, for the school, read a statement saying the board of
governors and the headmaster of the school, together with the parents
of the two students, affirmed the school's zero tolerance policy on
drug abuse inside or outside the school.

The two students accepted that the school was right to take the action
that it did following their behaviour on the night of Friday October
1st. The statement added: "The pupils acknowledge that such behaviour
is the antithesis of what is expected of a pupil attending the school
and they apologise for their actions.

"The pupils are readmitted to the school on January 10th, 2000, only
upon stringent conditions which are consistent with the strong
anti-drug stance for the school."

Mr Justice Kearns, who has ruled that neither the boys nor the school
are to be identified, said he was happy that the matter had been
resolved. The proceedings were struck out with no order on costs,
meaning each side pays its own lawyers.