A UNION spokesman has said teachers aren't given enough guidance about administering medicines following the case of a diabetic boy who was banned from school trips after suffering a blackout.

The move came as Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans revealed he had sent a dossier on Clitheroe Royal Grammar School's decision to Education Secretary David Blunkett.

Simon Jones, a local representative of the NUT, said he was regularly approached by worried teachers concerned about being asked to give children medicine.

He spoke out after the Disability Rights Commission decided to prosecute Clitheroe Royal Grammar School for refusing to take 15-year-old Tom White (pictured) on school trips.

Tory MP today Mr Evans condemned the decision to keep Tom off such events as "absolutely and fundamentally wrong."

Mr Evans said: "I do think that any pupil should be able to take part in school trips regardless of any disability.

"The school should be able to cut through the problem and find a solution, but they clearly have not done this.

"This should apply to all children with disabilities at schools throughout the country not just at Clitheroe Royal Grammar School. "I have made representations to headteacher Mr Stuart Hall but he has merely said that teachers are afraid to take responsibility for Thomas in view of what happened."

Tom, of Slaidburn Road, Waddington, is an insulin-dependent diabetic and blacked out while on a skiing trip to Austria in February. He said his teachers used a toothbrush to force his jaws apart to give him medicine.

His parents said the school later accused Tom of putting himself at risk by drinking a sugary drink before his collapse.

Headteacher Stuart Holt later wrote to his parents saying he would support his staff in refusing to accept Tom on school trips if the teachers felt unable to unwilling to cope with his condition. Mr Jones said he couldn't comment on the case, but said it raised other issues of teachers being asked to care for asthma sufferers and other children who regularly need drugs.

He said: "Teachers aren't given the appropriate training to do it, and it's not part of their job.

"In some cases, such as if a child with a peanut allergy has an allergic reaction, the teacher may cause serious damage by administering the adrenaline the child needs at the wrong time."

Mr Jones said teachers were also concerned about being asked to do things that involve touching children intimately, such as if a pupil needs rectal valium.

He said: "The union's advice to teachers would always be to refuse, because the teacher could be left open to malicious accusations of sexual abuse."