THE Chair of Governors at Herefordshire's only Roman Catholic High School says his authority, and that of his fellow governors, has been undermined by an appeals panel that over-ruled the expulsion of three students for possessing cannabis.

Pat Burbidge says the ruling has serious implications for discipline policy in all of the county's high schools.

"Where does this decision leave the authority of the governing body, of any school, to set standards?" asked Mr Burbidge in a letter to the Hereford Times.

Governors at St Mary's backed head teacher Clive Lambert in expelling the three students after they were caught with cannabis on school grounds.

And, in spite of the panel's ruling, Mr Burbidge believes he and his fellow governors would - and should - do the same again in line with the school's continuing zero tolerance stance on drugs.

Discipline, said Mr Burbidge, was a key feature of St Mary's culture. He said the governors had reviewed its drugs policy and 'unanimously agreed' that offences deemed to involve dealing should carry the threat of expulsion.

And that sanction, said Mr Burbidge, was supported by the government's own guidance to schools that gives supplying illegal drugs as one of the exceptional circumstances in which expulsion may be judged appropriate.

The appeals panel, however, ruled that the expulsion was too harsh a punishment for the three. Dr Eddie Oram, the county's director of education, told the Hereford Times that the panel was allowed a 'degree of discretion' over any difference between possessing drugs to deal or share.

Reinstatement did not 'clear' the three students but offered them a second chance once their specific circumstances had been taken into account, said Dr Oram.