Police swooped on Warwick Academy on Tuesday after it was reported that a schoolgirl was caught with cannabis a day earlier.

And angry Warwick Academy parents have attacked headmaster Robert Lennox for waiting a day before informing Police, claiming he has failed to take action on the incident.

They also charged school authorities had been soft on a boy who called in a bomb hoax earlier this month.

Yesterday Mr. Lennox stayed tight lipped about Monday's incident: "We won't discuss internal disciplinary matters. We have a very clear policy on such matters and it's being followed.'' Police are now investigating the matter.

A spokesman said: "Police were called to a Warwick school on Tuesday after a report that a student was in possession of plant like material. This matter is being investigated right now.'' A former parent said: "I heard this girl had gone round with a bag of cannabis, saying she was going to plant it on someone to get them into trouble. Her friend found it and took it straight to the headmaster.

"If it was a controlled drug, the girl should have been arrested with a full Police inquiry.'' He said the $8,000 a year school was failing to discipline pupils properly for serious offences and claimed a boy guilty of a bomb hoax on April 10 had got off with a slap on the wrist.

He said: "The bomb squad were called out.

"There must have been around 15 officers wasting their time for four or five hours while the whole building was searched. But the boy simply had to miss his lunch hour twice.

"He should have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

"A lot of Police were wasting their time when they have more important matters to be dealing with. The schoolchildren missed their education and it disrupted Middle Road.

"Their disciplinary procedure focuses on the minuscule things, but when something major happens bad pupils are treated lightly.

Again Mr. Lennox refused to discuss how the boy had been disciplined.

He said: "I am not discussing internal matters in public.

"If any parent has any problems with disciplinary matters then they can contact me.'' The Police spokesman said: "There has been no investigation into this as the school did not make a complaint.

"But we wouldn't want to encourage people to waste other people's time like that. It's mischievous.'' DRUGS DGS