Two Leaving Cert students expelled from their private Dublin school for smoking cannabis outside school hours are to be readmitted to the school in the new year "on stringent conditions", the High Court was told yesterday.
Both boys have apologised for their actions.
The students brought court proceedings last month seeking to overturn their expulsions, imposed the day after a teacher discovered they had smoked cannabis at a private party in a bar outside Dublin.
Mr Justice Kearns adjourned his decision on a number of occasions to enable discussions between the parents and children and school's board of governors.
Yesterday, Mr Diarmuid Rossa Phelan, for the boys, told the judge the case had been settled. He expressed the gratitude of the parents and the boys for the access they had been afforded by the court.
Mr Michael Howard, for the school, read a statement saying the board of governors and the headmaster of the school, together with the parents of the two students, affirmed the school's zero tolerance policy on drug abuse inside or outside the school.
The two students accepted that the school was right to take the action that it did following their behaviour on the night of Friday October 1st. The statement added: "The pupils acknowledge that such behaviour is the antithesis of what is expected of a pupil attending the school and they apologise for their actions.
"The pupils are readmitted to the school on January 10th, 2000, only upon stringent conditions which are consistent with the strong anti-drug stance for the school."
Mr Justice Kearns, who has ruled that neither the boys nor the school are to be identified, said he was happy that the matter had been resolved. The proceedings were struck out with no order on costs, meaning each side pays its own lawyers.