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FIVE pupils were taken to hospital after one of them spiked brownies with cannabis in a cookery class.

A Year 9 student at All Saints College, in West Denton, Newcastle, took the Class B drug into school before adding it to chocolate brownies during the home economics lesson.

The 14-year-old then shared the cakes with four other pupils. Another was thought to have also tasted them but it was later revealed he hadn’t.

Paramedics and the police were called when the teacher realised what had happened and the teenagers were taken to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

All the boys, aged either 13 or 14, were later assessed as showing no ill-effects and discharged later the same day.

The pupil who smuggled the drugs into school was arrested and later expelled. The other four were suspended pending an investigation by the police and school.

But the father of one of the suspended boys insisted his son didn’t know there were drugs in the brownies.

The dad of the 14-year-old, who the Chronicle has agreed not to name, told of the moment he received a phone call to say his son was in hospital.

He said: “We got a phone call from the school and they just said, ‘Your son has been taken to A&E and there are drugs involved’. We panicked.

“We didn’t know what kind of drugs or what had happened, everything just starts going through your mind.

“We got ourselves straight there and the police were there and told us what had happened. We were shocked and just couldn’t believe it. All the boys were OK, just a bit light-headed, which was the main thing.

“I didn’t know how he’d come about eating it but the school said he knew this other student had put cannabis in the brownies before he ate it.

“I was angry at first but my son swears this student told the rest of them what he had done but they didn’t believe him and ate it thinking he was joking.”

“The police immediately began an investigation and interviewed all six of the boys and discovered one hadn’t eaten the cakes.”

A spokesman for All Saints College said: “We can confirm that a Year 9 pupil brought some cannabis into a cookery lesson and shared it with four other pupils after adding it to some chocolate brownies. As soon as it became apparent what was going on, we immediately rang both the police and paramedics as a precaution.

“The pupil who brought the drugs was arrested and has now been permanently removed from school, while the other four have also been suspended. We take incidents such as this very seriously.”

A police spokesman said: “At 10.32am on Friday, May 18, police received information that a student had taken cannabis into a class at All Saints College, on West Denton Way.

“Six children were initially thought to be affected and were taken to the RVI as a precaution before being discharged on the same day.

“A 14-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the incident and has been bailed.”

In its last Ofsted inspection, last year, the school which caters for 667 pupils aged 11-16 and around 100 sixth formers, was overall satisfactory and improving.