INTERNET DANGER
there is risk-taking where you have no idea what the results will be because you don’t know what you are taking – and it appears to be what these kids did.”
Mr Dorrington said he would not discuss how the school would approach disciplining those involved at this stage as parents had enough stress “without worrying about that”. “We and the parents first want them to get out of hospital and then we’ll go through the process we go through.”
Detective Sen-Sgt Aubort said yesterday police were not just interested in pinning down the specifics of the Saint Stephen’s College incident but what was occurring generally: “... to understand if it was obtained on the worldwide web, or if obtained by alternate means, we need to understand as a service those dynamics and where this generation is moving to obtain drugs like that and the motivation for them.
Police had recovered evidence of what appeared to be a “powdered drug” at the scene but were still working on how it was “introduced” to the teens. ALERT Saint Stephen’s College teachers first noticed students were deteriorating on Wednesday in the lead-up to seven being rushed to hospital, some in critical condition.
College principal Jamie Dorrington, speaking to the Bulletin yesterday, said his understanding of how the dramatic scenes unfolded was that teachers first realised the “kids were not well”.
“They were not concentrating,” he said.
The students were taken to the sick bay.
The school nurse was summoned and an emergency call made to the Queensland Ambulance Service at 12.48pm, with paramedics initially attending to three students “on the verge of passing out”.
Paramedics then called for reinforcements when another four began slipping in and out of consciousness.
“Had the circumstances been different and we didn’t have teachers take immediate action or a school nurse – if they were were out in a paddock on camp or something – it could have been a much worse outcome,” Mr Dorrington said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Aubort said he could not fault the school’s handling of the incident.
“We really appreciate the risk management and governance in all schools to recognise any child coming down with anything and escalate something that might be out of the ordinary,” he said.