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Pupils withdrawn from school after teacher's cigarette test

Parents have withdrawn their 12-year-old children from a private school after a teacher who gave them a cigarette to smoke in class was allowed to keep his job.

Jim McIntee, a science teacher at the Canterbury Steiner School in Kent, lit the cigarette and handed it to pupils to demonstrate the effect of smoke on the lungs during a physiology lesson in February.

Philip Carberry, a solicitor whose son took a puff, said: "We felt that because Mr McIntee was still at the school we had no choice but to withdraw our son."

Another parent, Vicky Towler, said she was absolutely shocked by the teacher's actions.

Tracy Carver, a fellow mother, said: "You expect your son to try cigarettes at some point but not given to him by a teacher in a classroom."

All three parents have now arranged for their children to be schooled by a private tutor.

Rose Karemi, the chairman of the £7,000-a-year school, which follows the Rudolf Steiner philosophy of creative learning, said: "The teacher is a highly valued and very experienced member of staff who recognises that his actions, while done to positively discourage smoking, were an error of judgment.

"There is widespread support for the teacher among parents and pupils in class and he has the full support of colleagues."

Source: The Telegraph, 24th April 2008
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