A TOP performing school has been hit by scandal for the second time in recent months, after another pupil was caught with drugs.

The student, believed to be a teenage girl, is thought to have been found with cannabis at Hartlepool's English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College, in late January or early last month.

The incident follows a similar case last autumn in which two pupils were caught with the drug. On that occasion, headteacher Joe Hughes excluded the pair, but they returned to school after he was overruled by the governors.

Last night, deputy head Danny Corey confirmed that there had been "investigations of that nature this year" involving "the suspicion that drugs were in the school."

It is not known whether the police have been brought in to carry out an investigation at English Martyrs, which regularly tops the performance leagues for Hartlepool.