Two brothers yesterday lost their High Court application for a temporary order restraining their respective suspension and expulsion from school over an incident last month in which a teenage girl pupil was allegedly supplied with cannabis and came home either intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.
The boys, aged 12 and 15, had sought the interim order pending the outcome of their legal challenge to the school's disciplinary measures.
Refusing their application yesterday, Mr Justice O'Sullivan stressed he was not making any finding one way or another on the conflicting accounts of the incident on February 4th. A full trial of the action is unlikely for several months.
If he were to reinstate the boys in the school and they were to lose their case at the full trial, damage would have been done to the authority of the school board faced with the responsibility of dealing with a threat of drug abuse, the judge said.
However, he added, if he refused the injunction and the boys won their case, they would in all probability have had access to an alternative school. Neither of them was facing watershed examinations this summer. He found the balance of convenience lay in refusing the interim order.
The judge had heard the older boy, who has been expelled, had been suspended previously after he admitted providing cannabis for "a joint", which was shared among 10 other pupils last September.
It was also alleged the younger boy had smoked cannabis on that occasion and he, too, was suspended for a shorter period. Following the first incident, the older boy had given a written undertaking that he would not be involved in drug use.
Disciplinary action was taken against the boys after a girl's mother complained to gardai when her daughter came home in an intoxicated state or under the influence of drugs.
The girl initially said she got cannabis from the 15-year-old, but later said she had received it from his brother.
Mr Aidan Walsh SC, for the boys, said there was insufficient evidence before the board to justify its decision to suspend the younger boy and expel his brother.
Mr Tom Mallon, for the school, said it would help find another school for the boys.