DRUG PARTY OVER

BOB Stockton has only been school principal in Bellingen for three
months but it's been long enough for him to decide the school has
drink and drug problems beyond his control.

The head of Bellingen High School, near Coffs Harbour, has issued a
public ultimatum to those of his 690 pupils who drink or use drugs
quit or the party's over.

He took his drug-busting stance following outrageous behaviour by some
students at the school's first social of the year last month.

"The high incidence of drug-alcohol abuse prior to the dance was
frightening," he wrote in an open letter to parents which he asked the
local newspaper to publish in full.

It goes on: "We did everything possible to make the night a success.
However, there is not much we can do if children come to the dance
incapacitated."

NSW Ambulance confirmed that one intoxicated 15-year-old girl was
taken by ambulance to Bellingen Hospital to have her stomach pumped.

And a pupil told The Daily Telegraph how another student, a male
teenager apparently after eating a marijuana cake.

The letter states: "The first school social for 1999 may be the last
school social for 1999. Does it take death or serious injury to make
the point about under-age drinking?"

Local coach company Joyces' Bus Service, which has served the school
for three decades and regularly transports students to and from the
socials, also issued a public letter backing the school.

"Times are obviously changing and now on these occasions it would seem
that more and more under-age students are accessing alcohol," it stated.

The company said unless some control could be formulated, it would be
of greater service to the school community if the bus was
discontinued, forcing parents to collect their own children.

"By using the bus, those students who intend to indulge find it easy
to avoid parental gaze of their behaviour," the company's letter states.

Mr Stockton, who started in January at the school with the motto
"Truth triumphs" has won the full support of parents. Next week he
will chair a the next step".

He has received a videotape produced by NSW Education Department entitled:
Drugs: Let's Talk About it (parent version).

Mr Stockton has already suspended pupils in line with an Education
Department requirement for immediate suspension of substance abusers.

Kerry Child, president of the school council and the P&C said there
had been no negative feedback from the new principal's initiative.
meeting with parents to discuss "under-age drinking was violently sick
on the school bus transporting pupils home after the social.