Reprinted from smh.com.au "Student's one-year headache", December 8th 2003.

An American school with a "zero-tolerance" policy on drugs has suspended a pupil for a year for having headache tablets.

Year 10 high school pupil Amanda Stiles, from Louisiana, was suspended after over-the-counter Ibuprofen pills were found in her purse.

Head teacher Ken Kruithof said the decision was in line with Parkway High School's tough anti-drugs rules, even though the tablets are legal.

Amanda and her mother Kelly Herpin appealed to a school board committee but failed.

Herpin said: "I think a one-year expulsion for an over-the-counter medicine is pretty severe.

"I'm not really sure at this point what we'll do," she told the Louisiana-based Shreveport Times.

"I'm not sure we could afford a private school."

Amanda, 14, said she carried the tablets to treat headaches.

"I think we're old enough to know how many we can take without overdosing or being in danger," she said.

Last month armed police stormed a high school in South Carolina and ordered children to the floor at gunpoint so they could conduct a drugs search.