Schools feel effects of P epidemic

P use is likely to be harming children in every classroom in Northland, a leading principal says.

Te Tai Tokerau Principals Association president Pat Newman says the rampant use of methamphetamine in the north is affecting so many families it has become a major concern at schools.

“We’ve got the problem occurring where I would doubt there is a class in Northland that doesn’t have a child that is somehow affected through P,” he told Newstalk ZB yesterday.

“That could be, at the very worst, living in a house where it is manufactured and breathing in the fumes, through to parents using the money for [drugs] that should be on food, to seeing violence that goes with P.”

His statement comes as two primary-school-aged children were reportedly caught bringing methamphetamine to school, although Newman had not heard of those cases.

“The authorities will tell you it is probably easier to get your hands on P than it is on marijuana in the north,” he said.

The prevalence of P was also highlighted in a report this week in the Royal Society of New Zealand’s social sciences journal.

It looked at 578 children affected by parental drug use and found substance abuse was the number one cause why some children ended up living with their grandparents.

In such cases, it found, a child’s contact with parents was “often sporadic and unsatisfactory” with a number of parents having died, gone to prison or moved away.

Of these families, 14 per cent of grandparents said one or more of the children in their care had assaulted them physically, the report said.

“In most cases, the child appeared to lose control of their responses.”

Newman said that with more children coming to school affected by P, teachers were encountering “all sorts of behaviours”.

“Usually it is delayed developmental, so your 5-year-old is not ready to go into a classroom.”