An angry parent has questioned why Police were not called in after a Saltus student was booted out for drug possession on Friday.

Headmaster Nigel Kermode said the boy had been put through drug counselling after owning up to a drug problem but had been expelled after admitting bringing in narcotics.

The news come the day after The Royal Gazette revealed that Police were probing claims that a Warwick Academy school pupil had been caught with cannabis on Monday.

Mr. Kermode refused to say under what circumstances Police would be involved.

He said: "We don't have a legal requirement to involve the Police. We work with the school policy. I spoke with the trustees and under the terms I am not obliged to go to the Police.'' However one Saltus parent said: "If these things aren't dealt with through the Police then it sends the wrong message.'' He said pupils would cease to have any fear about bringing drugs into the classroom because the stiffest sanction would be expulsion rather than conviction.

And he added that most pupils who indulged in drugs wouldn't care if they were expelled.

The father fumed: "They are burying their heads in the sand. Bermuda has a drug problem.'' But Mr. Kermode said: "We were the first school to have a clear drugs policy.

There was an ad hoc policy.

"We are concerned to do the right thing.'' Mr. Kermode explained the school's drug policy meant lending support and help to pupils found with drugs to help them get back on the right track.

"We counsel because we have to assume there is a reason for drug use.'' He said pupils would then have to consent to regular drug testing but if students continued to use drugs they were expelled immediately.

The parent, who wished to remain anonymous, questioned whether private schools were taking a softer line on pupils caught with drugs as they stood to lose out on school fees if they immediately expelled pupils.

He added: "A student is a student regardless of whether they are in a private or a government school.'' But Mr. Kermode said the school wasn't motivated by the economic value of the pupil.

He said: "This is a dreadfully cynical view. I feel a deeper concern.'' And he denied the pupil wasn't bothered about being booted out.

He said: "It was regarded as deeply significant by the family and the student.'' Saltus senior school hit the headlines in 1997 over a drugs scandal at the school.