Parents shock at pick up

WHAT HAPPENED

PARENTS were shocked to learn students had overdosed on drugs yesterday as they waited to pick up their children from Southport State High School.

But they didn’t hear about it from the school — and neither did high-ranking police.

Instead the first many parents learned of the issue was from their children after they were picked up or the media presence outside the school not far from the trendy Chirn Park cafe precinct.

The school appeared to go to extraordinary lengths to stop the message getting out and letting parents know that four students had been taken to hospital.

There were no calls, texts messages, emails or any formal announcement telling parents what had happened.

The school did not even alert parents to the overdose on its Facebook page.

Top cops only found out after calls from the media.

The parents the Bulletin spoke to at after-school pickup had no idea the students had overdosed, almost seven hours after the first teen was taken to hospital.

When the bell rang some teachers, including the deputy principal, were at the Paramedics called to Southport State High School for the first child, when they began to feel sick.

The other three girls are taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital.

One of the girls is discharged from the GCUH.

school gates facing leafy Brooke Avenue to stop the media interviewing people.

The teachers declined to comment on whether the school was co-operating with relevant authorities.

When a student called out to a fellow classmate “did you hear what happened today?”, a male teacher called out to her and asked her to walk to him.

One teacher went so far as to stand in front of television cameras as reporters tried to speak to parents.

At one point 16 teachers were counted gathered in the area surrounding to the school’s main entrance.

BULLETIN VIEW, P68