Zero tolerance
11 Grammar students kicked out for drugs
Last June, Auckland Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor made a stirring speech at an old boys’ dinner, part of the school’s commemorations to mark its 150th anniversary.
The nine days of pomp and pageantry, from cocktail receptions and orchestral renditions of specially commissioned music, to a black-tie dinner in a marquee on school grounds, had showcased the ‘‘Grammar Way’’, which can perhaps be summed up as the unrelenting pursuit of excellence.
O’Connor spoke of the ‘‘mystique of Grammar’’, and how the ‘‘magic woven into the fabric of this school comes from our past, our old boys, our people’’.
Perhaps the most visible manifestation of this was on the sidelines of the annual Grammar v King’s College 1st XV match, O’Connor ventured, which Grammar
had narrowly won 19-15.
The current crop of students had ‘‘learnt of the sacrifices others have made to give us an edge,’’ he said. ‘‘A school for every boy – ‘no matter what class or race’. That is legacy.’’
Some months after that June speech, 11 Grammar students were suspended for gross misconduct related to the misuse of drugs. The board of trustees subsequently expelled or excluded all 11 from the school.
A source told the Sunday StarTimes it was for possession of and selling Class A drugs.
On November 15, the StarTimes approached the school to ask specifically about an incident involving the 11 students.
The school refused to answer any questions. At the time, O’Connor said: ‘‘Auckland Grammar School does not discuss individual student circumstances for privacy reasons.’’
This appears to be at odds with previous occasions when O’Connor has discussed details of expulsions, such as in 2015 when four students were excluded for taking and sending objectionable images.
The Star-Times then lodged an Official Information Act (OIA) request with the school, which it too refused to answer. We then complained to the Ombudsman, which adjudicates on OIA disputes.
In April, board of trustees chairman Mark Sandelin wrote to Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier offering a ‘‘proposed resolution’’ to the complaint.
It released a table of suspensions, exclusions and expulsions for the 2018 and 2019 years. It showed that in 2019, 11 students were suspended for gross misconduct involving drugs, 10 were expelled (the strictest punishment for students over the age of 16), and one was excluded, indicating he was under 16.
‘‘With the passage of time, the school is satisfied that it can disclose the statistical information requested, as it is now unlikely that individual students could be identified and adversely affected by the school providing it to the media,’’ Sandelin said.
‘‘The students who make up these figures, and were excluded or expelled in 2019 as the outcome of a suspension hearing, have now had the opportunity to be placed in other secondary schools.
‘‘We are also informed that the health and well-being of some of these students are no longer in the high-risk category.’’
Sandelin justified the decision on the grounds that disclosing information may allow individual students to be identified, citing the Privacy Act.
However, a media law expert who reviewed the response said the Privacy Act couldn’t be used to withhold information through the OIA.
Victoria University’s Steven Price said there was a privacy reason for withholding information, just not in the way the
‘‘Zero tolerance gets you nowhere – is that protecting the school’s reputation or brushing the issue under the carpet?’’
Ross Bell Drug Foundation
school had invoked it.
Sandelin, a partner at one of the country’s largest law firms, Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, was not available for an interview this week.
O’Connor’s executive assistant, in response to a series of written questions, replied: ‘‘On behalf of Mr O’Connor, thank you for your request.
‘‘Auckland Grammar School does not comment publicly on matters pertaining to individual students.’’
It appears the police were not notified. A police spokesman said: ‘‘Police are not immediately aware of any reports in relation to the matter you have raised.’’
Grammar’s school rules state that ‘‘no student shall consume, sell, purchase, supply, have in his possession or be under the influence of alcohol, tobacco’’.
Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said at a time when the pendulum had swung away from a punitive approach to
drugs to one of pastoral care, the hardline approach taken by Grammar was simply ignoring reality.
‘‘Zero tolerance gets you nowhere – is that protecting the school’s reputation or brushing the issue under the carpet?
‘‘Schools get nervous and misjudge their responsibility to issues like drugs where they wrongly perceive that they have to uphold their reputation and the only way to do that is to pretend that drugs don’t exist in their environment. But life has moved on.’’
On the school’s website, and in its marketing material, alumni at the all-male school are referred to by name and year they began their ‘‘Grammar journey’’.
These include such illustrious figures as Sir Edmund Hillary ’31 and All Black great Grant Fox ’76.
Four former students are current members of the Order of NZ, awarded to the nation’s top 20 living New Zealanders, including Sir Ron Carter ’48 and former chief scientist Sir Peter Gluckman ’61.
Grammar has also produced the most All Blacks – 52 – of any school in New Zealand.
Act leader David Seymour ’97 said despite Grammar’s keen sense of tradition and legacy, it was still an innovative, ‘‘cutting edge’’ school.
Egalitarianism was a key value instilled in students.
‘‘You look at a guy like Ed Hillary, he was a gangly kid who caught the train from Tuakau every day, and initially had quite a rough time. But I think it actually made him and allowed him to develop his passions and succeed.’’
Seymour played the part of Hillary in a 1997 TVNZ docudrama, Hillary: A View from
the Top – The Early Years, appearing as a bewildered third former on his first day at Grammar as Hillary described in a voiceover being left alone in the school’s assembly hall.
‘‘It was my first and last acting job,’’ Seymour quipped.
He remains active in the school community today, and says the school’s pursuit of excellence had a lasting impact on him. ‘‘The main thing I got out of Grammar is it teaches you it’s OK to do well, and to be proud of achieving. At Grammar you never get bullied for succeeding.’’
Grammar is a non-fee paying school, but falls in one of the country’s wealthiest catchment areas, which includes the suburbs of Mt Eden, Parnell, Remuera and Newmarket.
Real estate agents frequently tout ‘‘Grammar zone’’ as a key selling point.
Statistics from Homes.co.nz in January 2020 showed that ‘‘double Grammar’’ zone houses
According to Ministry of Education figures, the percentage of exclusions for drugs or substance abuse has decreased significantly over the past 20 years. In 2000, 24 per cent of exclusions were for drugs. By 2018 it was fewer than 10 per cent.
Ross Bell said there had been a major shift in thinking about how to deal with instances of drugs in schools, and many accepted they could no longer ‘‘kick the problem down the road’’. ‘‘Teachers aren’t police, and schools aren’t courts and prisons. We can’t have them thinking that that’s what their role is.’’
Associate Minister of Education Tracey Martin said schools had introduced measures like random drug testing, and involved the Drug Foundation and independent drug educators to improve student’s awareness of the potential risks.
In her experience as a former board of trustees chairwoman at Warkworth’s Mahurangi College, a school would involve police where there had been drug dealing involved, but not for small amounts of possession of marijuana.
‘‘Every single disciplinary case but be treated on its own merits because there are different circumstances.
‘‘Schools are a microcosm of the society they live in, and every single part of our society has drugs and alcohol in it. It’s not just lower socio-economic groups.’’