A ‘legal high’ drug may be to blame after ten pupils fell ill at a secondary school. Police believe a herbal-based substance could have caused youngsters at the National Church of England Academy in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, to complain of sickness and dizzy spells. Officers were called to the school last Friday afternoon after the pupils, aged between 11 and 15, started feeling ill.
Sergeant Simon Scales, of Nottinghamshire Police, said today that officers believe they have identified the substance which may be behind the sickness, adding that the test results were ‘particularly worrying’. He said: ‘Using legal highs as recreational drugs carries risks. He added that many legal highs had in fact been found to contain Class C and Class B drugs, making them harmful and illegal. The children involved have suffered no further ill-effects.
Police have since been informing the school's 1,100 pupils of the risks of using legal highs. The academy's website states that its aim is to provide ‘a happy and stimulating environment in which young people can develop and grow’. In February, Ofsted inspectors gave the academy a glowing report in an interim assessment, while the most recent full inspection in 2010 concluded it was a good school.
