THREE Warwick State High School students have been reprimanded for either being intoxicated or possessing alcohol while at school during the past 12 months, as the worrying trend of teen binge-drinking escalates.

Department of Education and Training (DET) regional director Greg Dickman this week confirmed the students had been disciplined in accordance with the school Responsible Behaviour Plan for Students manual, following the alcohol-related incidents.

Mr Dickman said both the police and parents of the students involved were called as a result of the severity of the students’ actions.

“Under-age drinking is against the law and principals can and will contact the police if students appear intoxicated or are found with alcohol in their possession,” he said.

“In each of these incidents, students were found to either be in possession of alcohol of appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

“To the department’s knowledge no alcohol was consumed on school grounds in these cases.”

The revelations come a week after the Daily News published a story related to a recent incident in which it is believed an Assumption College student attended school drunk before becoming violently ill in class.

It is believed the student came to school intoxicated as a dare and later vomited during a lesson.

A spokesman for the school confirmed “an incident” did take place but would not go into the details of the incident, other than it had been dealt with appropriately.

He said the school promoted and encouraged students to make healthy choices.

Mr Dickman said alcohol-related incidents would not be tolerated in state schools.

“All schools, including Warwick High School, treat alcohol abuse extremely seriously and there are severe consequences for these kinds of actions,” he said.

He said the school ran a compulsory and comprehensive drug and alcohol program across all year levels.

Headspace Southern Downs manager Mark Goddard last week said the onus was on parents, not just schools, to educate and communicate alcohol and drug-related issues with their kids.

Mr Goddard said a warning sign that drinking might be a problem was when alcohol was the first thing people thought about and was at the forefront of decision making.