Schools need more support to deal with drugs

Schools need more support to deal with drugs

Secondary schools are not getting the support they need when it comes to dealing with students with drug problems.

The media spotlight on the use of drug dogs in Wellington secondary schools highlights this, PPTA president Kate Gainsford says.

“Too often secondary schools and teachers have to deal with serious problems brought in from outside the school gates.”

This was one of the issues that arose from March’s Taumata Whanonga behavior summit, Gainsford said.

“All the evidence is that problems must be dealt with in the early years when they (young people) are amenable to change; if they are left until adolescence extensive (and expensive) intervention is required.

“Schools are expected to do much more than educate students but they cannot solve severe health and social problems when they don’t have the support and resources to do so”, she said.

Although no school likes to go to such drastic measures as calling in the police, they have little alternative but to resort to coercive approaches, Gainsford said.

“As well as external support agencies – particularly in respect of drug addition - schools need more guidance counsellors, social workers and programmes to support parents and families in order to do more than simply contain the problem.

“We would like to be in a situation where no principal felt they had to bring drug dogs into school,” she said.

ENDS

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