TWELVE students were suspended recently at Clitheroe Grammar School after they were caught experimenting with cannabis.

A week earlier another pupil had been taken ill at the school when he took the same drug.

One student has since been cautioned by police. What happens when a school suffers this sort of trauma; who can they call in to help; and what can the experts do?

The Evening Telegrapg investigates

SCHOOLBOY Gareth Noone had everything to live for. He was a bright student with a comfortable, caring family. But at 16 he was dead -- the victim of a drug overdose.

Gareth, of Langho, near Blackburn, was killed by the heroin substitute Methadone.

"He was a naive user. He died of ignorance," his mother Niamh said.

Since the bombshell hit her family six years ago the police solicitor has campaigned to educate young people in schools about the dangers of that ignorance. And throughout East Lancashire council experts and the police are targeting pupils in a massive bid to save young lives -- and help them avoid the misery of drug abuse, including the rocketing incidence of binge boozing.

Niamh, of Lowerfield, who is Lancashire Constabulary's solicitor to the Chief Constable and head of its legal department, said: "Gareth was ignorant of the effects that drugs can have. I had to take that message to young people. Parents always want their children to be innocent; but ignorance can kill them."

She worked through the Life Education Trust, which specialises in anti-drugs programmes for children and encourages them to appreciate the positive aspects of being alive.

"The family was devastated by Gareth's death, but we did not want him to have died in vain," she said.

At Blackburn with Darwen Council Tony Shea works as drugs education development officer in the Education and Lifelong Learning Department.

"We encourage schools to make teaching about drugs a high-quality curriculum item. And if they do have an incident we try to show them how to manage it," he said.

"People often ask 'What are the danger signs?' and I have to say to them that often there are no danger signs. Users will try not to look like users . . . and when you talk about poor attendance, poor diet, restlessness -- you're talking about half the teenage population," he said.

When Tony goes into a school he will initially meet senior teachers, a parents' representative and a governor.

"But it's also important to put the policy to a group of the young people. They have to have an input. They are often misinformed by slanted material in the national tabloids or on TV. And they have to agree the policy is right. We must have credibilty with them."

What if there is a drugs incident at a school?

Tony said: "The key person, of course, is the head. The pupils may well need in-school support, referral to an outside agency, monitoring or, indeed, exclusion. But the school should want to get them back quickly and work things through to make sure it doesn't happen again.The action might have a cry for help; it might have been curiosity."

At Lancashire County Council, John Battersby and Nicki Etherington co-ordinate drugs education in East Lancashire schools outside Blackburn with Darwen. John said: "We offer training, guidance and support. And we are advocating that every school should have a drugs policy."

He agrees with Tony that despite the high profile given to incidents like the one at Clitheroe Grammar School recently, where 12 students were suspended for experimenting with cannabis, alcohol abuse is the main problem among schoolchildren.

Recent research has shown teenagers are drinking twice as much as they did five years ago.

"But it is no good going in with shock/horror propaganda.

"We give young people a balanced, accurate picture of the dangers.

"Otherwise, they can react in the wrong way."