School drug epidemic
Suspensions surge on narcotics, weapons
SUSPENSIONS for drug use at Far Northern state schools have increased by 50 per cent over the past two years.
The latest Education Department figures reveal there were 134 instances of drug misconduct in 2016, up from 107 in the previous year and 90 suspensions in 2014.
The data, revealed by the LNP, showed there were 452 drug-related suspensions across Far Northern state schools over the five years to 2017. “The stats are telling us that in Cairns over the last two years, the incidence of suspension for drugs in schools has gone up 50 per cent,” Opposition education spokeswoman Tracy Davis said. “And these are the ones we know about: only the kids who have been caught.”
The figures do not delineate student ages or what illegal substances they had, although Ms Davis said an eight-yearold caught with drugs in Mackay was the most worrying case.
It follows the release of more statistics showing the region’s schools suspended 374 Far North students for weapon-related misconduct last year.
On Monday Barron River MP Craig Crawford rejected the idea the region’s schools were dangerous, saying the data failed to separate spitballs from handguns.
Ms Davis said the State Government wanted to “sweep it under the carpet” and call it a statistical glitch. She stopped short of promising random drug checks at schools or outlining specific policies to reverse the trend.
“I wouldn’t like to think we had to go down the path of America and put scanners and sniffer dogs in there,” she said.
“But if we start to accept they are present and work out why kids are bringing them to school, we might go some way to bring the numbers down.”
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