Hard line on drugs at schools
Thousands of Kiwi kids have been suspended over the past five years for having drugs at school.
It was mainly the drug that has many names: cannabis, dak, ganja, weed, pot, herb, green, kakariki, bud, chronic.
But there is only one name for what happens when students get caught using it – suspension.
Data released under the Official Information Act reveals 3177 state school students were suspended for drug use between 2012 and 2016.
Students in the Auckland region had the highest number of suspensions – 755 over the past five years – but it is also the region that has the largest number of schools.
At the other end of the scale, seven students on the West Coast were suspended for drug use.
And it is not just high school students that are copping a suspension. Primary school pupils – 287 of them over five years – have been suspended, too.
The figure for students suspended from private schools is unknown because they are not covered under the act.
Waikato numbers
In the Waikato, more than 400 students were hauled into the principal’s office.
Waikato principals say it is mostly marijuana – and small amounts of it – that get students into trouble.
They are unapologetic about the number of suspensions and say all schools should have a zero tolerance approach.
In the Waikato, Hillcrest High School topped the list for the highest number of students suspended, with 39 between 2012 and 2016. Tokoroa High School suspended 35 students over the same period. The Tokoroa school’s principal, Willie Ford, said most students suspended from his school had used marijuana.
However, during 2012 and 2013, Ford saw a spike in synthetic drug use, with 14 students suspended for using it over four years. There were no suspensions for synthetic drugs in 2016.
‘‘The school tends to take a strong stance on drugs and the school approach has always been to suspend the student,’’ Ford said.
‘‘This has three primary reasons; to demonstrate the school’s view of the seriousness of drug use; to give the student a wake-up call; and to force the family of the student to attend a board of trustees disciplinary hearing.
Unlike a stand-down period where the principal can remove a student from school for up to five days, it is the board that decides whether the student can return to school and under what conditions.
A student can be excluded if they are under 16 or expelled if they are 16 or over.
Like most schools, Tokoroa High offers counselling to students and other conditions can be put in place, like passing a drug test.
Ford said that of the 35 suspensions, only two students were excluded.
‘‘In both cases, the exclusions were due to an accumulation of other incidents prior to their suspension for drugs.
Hard-line approach
Further north at Te Kauwhata College, principal Deborah Hohneck said she was a little surprised at the hard-line approach the board took on drugs.
Hohneck has been at the college for two years and came from James Cook High School, a decile one school in South Auckland that had more than 1200 students – more than double that of Te Kauwhata College.
She initially thought students would be stood down instead of suspended, especially for first incidents.
‘‘For suspicion of drugs or if they were caught with a little amount, I did stand-downs but the board at Te Kauwhata took a hard stance on drugs. ‘‘We don’t want to be tolerant of drugs in schools and that’s why the statistics have been quite high.’’
In November, Hohneck arranged for a drug dog to come to the school.
She made sure all the ‘‘doubtful’’ students were present.
And fortunately, the dog found nothing.
‘‘We had a little rash recently where someone was supplying our young ones with marijuana.
‘‘Sometimes it’s in the community and condoned on different levels and in different households.
‘‘Where these kids get the drugs is disturbing and how young they are is disturbing.’’
At Te Kauwhata College, students caught using have to engage in a guided reading programme and intensive education on the effects of drugs. They are also subject to random drug tests.