A TOP North Yorkshire public school has suspended 21 pupils and called in police following a drugs crackdown.

Ampleforth College, near Helmsley, sent the pupils home for three days this week for taking cannabis.

A spokesman for the school - whose former pupils include former England Rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio and actor Rupert Everett - said the school planned to make random drug tests in the future following the suspensions.

All pupils involved will be cautioned by police.

Headmaster Father Gabriel Everitt said: "Some may regard cannabis as a soft drug, widely tolerated for recreational use by much of society.

"That is not the view here. It can be vastly more powerful than what was available a generation ago.

"Our attitude is uncompromising. We regard any form of drug taking as a very serious breach of discipline, and we are conducting a rigorous investigation into all the circumstances of this discovery."

The shock suspensions are only the latest scandal to hit the famous Catholic boarding school.

One of its monks, a former prep school master at Gilling Castle, currently faces 16 charges of indecently assaulting boys in his care.

The monk, 71-year-old Father Piers Henry Grant-Ferris, denies the charges.

He is due to reappear before Scarborough magistrates on March 18, when the case will be transferred to Crown Court.

In July 1999, Steven Kitching - a former cleaner at the school - was jailed for 30 months for supplying drugs to sixth-formers.

Kitching admitted supplying cannabis and claimed the school had a drugs problem.

York Crown Court heard how he repeatedly sold the drug to pupils, sometimes adding a £5 "delivery charge" to his standard fee of £20 or £30.

But he had only sold the cannabis after being approached by five pupils between November 1998 and February 1999.

The five students, aged between 15 and 17, had later admitted what they had done and three were cautioned.

The school sacked Kitching after his offences came to light. He later won a major cut in his sentence on appeal.

Updated: 10:12 Saturday, February 12, 2005