Are they nuts?

Father’s fury as he buys £600 lie-detector test for daughter after school bans her and classmate over peanuts left on allergic teacher’s desk

A SCHOOLGIRL suspended for allegedly sprinkling peanuts on her allergic teacher’s desk has taken a £600 lie-detector test in a bid to ‘prove her innocence’.

Alexandra McDonald, 16, and her friend Maddie Colley, 17, insist they were framed for the shocking prank at Rochester Grammar School in Kent.

After listening to his daughter’s denials, Alexandra’s father Peter took matters into his own hands and spent £595 on a Jeremy Kyle-style lie-detector test.

It said that she was 97 per cent likely to be telling the truth – but it failed to convince teachers at the grammar school to overturn the 20-day exclusion.

The girls were sent home on Wednesday last week after being found giggling in the hallway outside a classroom where crushed nuts were placed on the desk of a teacher with a severe allergy.

The ‘serious health and safety offence’ breached the school’s ‘no-nut’ policy and Alexandra and Maddie will now have to sit their A-level mock exams in isolation at a different school. A spokesman for the top school said: ‘ We make no apologies and are surprised a parent of one of the students does not see the seriousness of their actions.’

But Mr McDonald remains determined to overturn the suspension. He said: ‘The report from the lie-detector is 98 per cent accurate, so it does prove she is telling the truth. I asked for proof and was told it was on probability, a teacher saw them giggling in the same corridor but they didn’t see them with the nuts.

‘The exclusion will be appealed to the school governors, so I got the liedetector done to prove her innocence. I told the school about the lie- detector and they weren’t interested, it’s so frustrating.’

Mr McDonald said he decided to take action because he was ‘going around in circles’ with the school who refused to review the exclusion. He said: ‘It was one of my friends who suggested Alex take a lie-detector test.

‘I did a bit of research and found a reputable company. The woman who came around has been doing it all over the world for 15 years.

‘She said the results were very precise and they are more accurate when tested on young people. There were three rounds altogether including practice questions and Alex passed all of them.

‘A pad was put on the chair and there was a blood pressure gauge, a strap that went across the chest and wires that connected to the fingers.’ Alexandra, who planned to study at the University of Kent to become a teacher, said: ‘I’m gutted. When I was told I was Ousted: Alexandra, left, and Maddie were accused of prank at Rochester Grammar going to be excluded I was shocked, I couldn’t speak. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher but this makes me think it’s not something I want to do, if this can happen to an innocent person.’ Meanwhile Maddie’s mother Michelle Colley said: ‘We have tried to convince the school but they have made their decision based on probability and they won’t listen to any other argument.

‘I’m hoping they will reconsider on the new evidence. I don’t think we would go down the lie-detector route but Maddie says she would take a test too.

‘This will go on her permanent record if it doesn’t get sorted. I fully believe her, if it was a practical joke she would have admitted it by now.’ The school spokesman added: ‘ Following an internal investigation, we took the decision to temporarily exclude two students for their part in an extremely dangerous incident that could have had fatal consequences. The school has been nutfree for over 20 years, and information is sent to every parent on their child starting at the school to confirm this.’

They said the exclusion decision was in line with guidance from the Department for Education. Anaphylactic shock can kill within minutes if someone with a severe nut allergy is exposed to nuts.

‘A teacher saw them giggling’