Students facing expulsion over white powder video allowed back

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal upheld injunctions allowing two unnamed students facing expulsion over a white powder video to return to school. The proceedings were reported on 31 July 2019.

The students had filmed and posted a classmate snorting white powder during a class. The substance was sugar. Mr Justice Max Barrett said it was never alleged that the two students had consumed anything illegal.

The three-judge court found the High Court had taken the correct approach and accepted the students had a strong arguable case that expulsion was irrational.

One Section 29 appeal overturned an expulsion, while another failed and remains challenged in separate judicial review proceedings.