A FATHER today vowed to fight on for justice after winning the first round in a battle for his diabetic son's right to attend school activity trips.

Clitheroe Royal Grammar School told Tom White, 16, he could not go on a watersports holiday in France during the summer of 2000 after he blacked out during a previous trip.

But a judge at Preston County Court ruled that the school could not use a loophole in anti-discrimination legislation to ban Tom from the French trip and should have let him go.

The next stage of the case will now be heard in the next few months when the school and its governing body will be asked to say exactly why they stopped Tom going on the trip.

Tom's dad Malcolm today said: "We are very happy we have reached this first stage after nearly two years of fighting.

"We did not go into this lightly when we launched the case and we will continue to argue our case all the way. This ruling says that non-educational trips are covered by the act.

"We have had a lot of support from medical experts and from MP Nigel Evans but every time we have come up against the same brick wall.

"The school played its get out of jail card and it failed, now it has to explain why Tom wasn't allowed on the trips."

Tom said: "All I wanted was to be treated like everyone else. I hope that no other pupil has to suffer discrimination of this nature. At last I can go on trips with my school friends -- all I wanted was to be treated like everyone else, not to be made to feel different just because I have diabetes."

Head teacher Stuart Holt's decision was made after Tom suffered his first hypoglycaemic attack on a skiing trip in February 1999.

Tom's case was taken up by the Disability Rights Commission in what the organisation claims is the first disability discrimination case against a school.

The school is also being sued by Tom and his family and that case is yet to be heard. Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, said: "It is a victory for common sense.Tom, like any other disabled pupil, deserves to have access to school activities. It was wrong to exclude him."

Under current guidelines, the Disability Discrimination Act does not cover the education system.

But the judge ruled that the school should have allowed Tom to go on the activity trip as it would not be seen as part of Tom's formal education.

However, Tom was also been banned by the school from an exchange trip to Germany which was important to his GCSE German course. Because this was an educational trip, he has no protection under the law.

New laws to be issued in September this year will give the youngster full protection and eliminate the loophole. The head teacher at the school was unavailable to comment today.