Schoolboys expelled over ‘joke cocaine snort’ video

TWO Leaving Cert students who posted a video online of another pupil jokingly snorting a white powder have been formally expelled.

The two final-year students had initially been suspended from secondary school after the incident, which was said to have been a prank.

They won High Court injunctions last month that allowed them to keep attending school pending the final outcome of their legal action.

Judge Max Barrett ruled they needed to get back to the school to prepare for the examinations they are due to sit next summer.

The school has lodged an appeal against that decision with the Court of Appeal.

At a preliminary hearing yesterday, the Court of Appeal was told the pair have now been expelled, RTÉ reported last night.

It also emerged that both students are appealing that decision to the Department of Education.

The school board found the boys had behaved in a manner that posed a serious threat to the good order and discipline of the school.

But, the court heard, it was never alleged the schoolboys had consumed anything illegal and the video had been shared on a social media platform with a limited number of participants.

The incident was said to have taken place in a school computer room in the presence of a teacher but not during a lesson.

The boy who was filmed taking the substance – jokingly stated in the video to be cocaine – was not part of the court case.

In the High Court last month, Mr Justice Max Barrett was told this student had subsequently claimed the substance was sugar and that the incident was merely a prank. At the time, Judge Barrett noted that the students wanted to return to school in what was an important academic year for them.

The identities of the schoolboys, due to sit their Leaving Cert next year, are not being made public.

Their appeal against expulsion will be heard by the Department of Education in January.