Teenager suffered PTSD after using meow meow-spiked vape given to her by pupils

A teenage girl who says she has PTSD after being given drugs by sixth-form boys at a top private boarding school is suing for £145,000.

Irune Pedrayes, now 19, was in her first week at the £34,000-a-year Buckswood School, near Hastings, East Sussex, when she was given mephedrone vape liquid by senior boys.

Mephedrone, also known as ‘meow meow’ and m-cat, is a powerful stimulant comparable to ecstasy.

Miss Pedrayes, then 14, said the drug-laced vapes led to her abusing drugs and drinking all weekend, eventually landing her in the hospital.

She said she suffered an extended ‘psychotic outbreak’ from the drugs, which sparked hallucinations, anxiety and a breakdown for weeks.

Eventually, she left the school for her home in Spain, where she had to receive anti-psychotic medications for the ordeal, which she blames the school for.

Now, as an adult, she is suing the school for £145,000 in compensation at the High Court, claiming they didn’t properly supervise the students, leading to her drug use and breakdown.

Her lawyers say Miss Pedrayes was ‘vulnerable’ and should have been supported better, and that support could have prevented the three-day binge.

They said before she moved to England, she never used drugs, but the ‘easy access’ at Buckswood persuaded her.

The school, which caters for children aged 11-19, claims to offer a ‘safe, supportive and family-like atmosphere’, and has denied liability for her psychiatric conditions, claiming robust anti-drug policies were in place.

High Court Judge Geraint Webb KC was told that Miss Pedrayes had suffered with ‘psychological problems’ while in Spain, where she failed a year at school before moving to the UK.

The court also heard she had ‘challenging’ behaviour once she moved to Buckswood, and had repeated detentions.

Her barrister, Meghann McTague, said in September 2019, Miss Pedrayes had been supplied with ‘magic’, a vape liquid containing the Class B drug mephedrone.

‘The claimant spent that whole weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – consuming a Class B drug that was supplied to her by older boys at the school, and drinking alcohol that was also supplied to her,’ she said.

‘This drug use took place on the rugby pitch at the school. She was with four other students from the school. Nobody discovered those students. Nobody noticed, despite attending mealtimes and at bedtime, that she was high all weekend.’

The school has accepted that Miss Pedrayes suffered a mental breakdown from the drug abuse, but she went back to the school without her parents being informed of the drug use.

After that, her behaviour continued to deteriorate, including a further incident of drug use, before she left the school in November 2019.

Her barrister, Ms McTague, said the school was at fault for what happened, because a 14-year-old child should not be able to take drugs on school grounds for three days without being seen.

She said the school should have been aware of what happened because another pupil had reported how Miss Pedrayes had been supplied with the drug by sixth formers.

She continued: ‘Miss Pedrayes’ parents were never told by the school that she had been hospitalised as a result of consuming a Class B drug supplied to her by another pupil, nor that she was suffering psychiatric symptoms as a result.

‘Instead, her parents were told only that she had used a vape and that she was going to be given a smoker’s reform sanction. Her psychosis was left untreated until she was later threatened with expulsion by the school and returned to Spain.’

Ms McTague said the school had previous problems with drug use, with a January 2019 Ofsted report mentioning “recent concerns about students using drugs.”

For the school, barrister Nigel Edwards told the judge that it denies breaching the duty of care owed to Miss Pedrayes, pointing out that she had been made aware of the school’s ban on drugs and alcohol.

‘Staff were available night and day within the boarding house. School rules were in place expressly prohibiting illicit drugs,’ he said. ‘There was a behaviour policy in place. Staff could and did search pupils’ rooms. Staff could and did search pupils.’

‘The school had in place a reasonably adequate system of supervision…it is for the claimant to establish that the supervision provided fell below the reasonable standard.’

The school’s principal, Kevin Samson, told the judge there was no evidence before the incident that Miss Pedrayes was a cause for concern regarding vaping, smoking or drinking.

He said the school had not told her parents about the incident after it happened because she had taken a urine test, which produced a negative result.

Continuing, he said he doubted that the drug use could have happened on the rugby pitch, which is in plain sight, or whether Miss Pedrayes had consumed drugs all weekend, as she claims.

Following a two-day trial, Judge Webb reserved his decision on the case until a later date.

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