HOLY WEED TAKES CONTROL IN SCHOOLS

A pall of smoke hangs over secondary schools as drug abuse reaches
unprecedented levels.

More and more students are getting addicted to drugs dagga that was in the
past something used by reckless, rebellious people is now a common smoke
among teenagers.

It has slowly but surely become fashionable and is frequently smoked by
students in English medium and public schools.

The principal of Gaborone Secondary School (GSS), Mosimanegape Mophuting
says it has been very difficult to deal with is dagga abuse in the school
since he came to head it last year. He revealed that the problem is rampant
and he had to act firmly and quickly and this has had the desired effect.
He revealed that most students caught with dagga are those who get a lot of
pocket money from their parents. "We do not coerce the students into
telling us the truth but they come up to us on their own because they need
help," Mophuting said. He added that their mission at GSS is to get to the
suppliers with the help of the police and the Diamonds and Narcotics squad.
"The students have told us that they get the stuff from the bus rank and
mostly from tuck shops. In most cases the police do arrest these people
when they are identified by the students," Mophuting said. Molosiwa
Ntseane, principal of Ledumang Senior Secondary School (LSSS) confirmed
that dagga abuse is a problem in every school.

He said that they have worked around the clock to curb the problem by
handing those caught red-handed to the police. "We have done this twice to
drive the message to the students.

Dagga is a big problem in schools and it very unfortunate that the students
buy it from adults," Ntseane lamented. He said one boy at his school broke
down and started crying that he needs help because he is a drug addict.
"This boy was crying for help and we did help him come out of that addiction.

We are still in the process of trying to get him quit smoking altogether
and he confessed that he is now on one cigarette a day from 10," he said
before adding that most of the students are already addicts at junior
schools. "They get addicted through peer pressure from their friends who
are already abusers of dagga," Ntseane said. While the use of dagga seems
to be prevalent in public schools, hard drugs like cocaine and ecstasy seem
to be a very serious problem in English medium schools.

These drugs need a lot of money to purchase and the students at English
medium get them with comparative ease because their parents are generally
well-off and give them generous allowances. Private schools are very cagey
with information on the subject. Recently one Form Four student at Legae
Academy was expelled because of drugs.

Some residents of Phase 2 where the school is located complained about the
student whom they said always engage in drinking sprees during school breaks.

But the school principal, Aso Ommen denied that his school is facing such
problems in a telephone interview. But he accepted that drug abuse has been
a problem at the school in the past years. "It was a problem in the past years.

We always warned the students about the drugs and organised guidance and
counselling for them. We are not aware of any drug related case where a
student was expelled recently," Ommen said. He asserted that they place
students on probation if they are caught with drugs.

They are expelled when they repeat the same offence while on probation.

Ommen said he cannot talk about students who drink during breaks because
they do not know what is happening outside the school premises. Maru-a-Pula
School principal Andrew Taylor explained that the do have a clear policy
that whenever they discover that a student is under the influence of drugs,
they suspend him or her. Repeating the offence results in expulsion.

He said dagga smoking is very rare in his school and they do take steps to
address the students on drug abuse. Taylor said that they only have five to
six cases of drug abuse in a year. The officer commanding the Diamonds and
Narcotics squad, Merafe Kebonyemodisa confirmed that they have been faced
with problems of drug abuse in schools.

He said that if they arrest such students, they usually involve the social
workers to counsel them because they are still underage and cannot stand trial.

He said they have closed down some tuck shops that have been selling drugs
to students. "Our mission is to crack down on the suppliers with the help
of the students.

If the teachers involve the parents only and warn the students without
informing us, then we do not get to the root of the problem.

The supplier still continues selling these drugs to the other students," he
said. Kebonyemodisa indicated that they have arrested a few Rastafarians at
the bus station selling dagga to students. "Some of these Rastafarians are
behind bars waiting trial while others are out on bail with their cases
pending," he said. He appealed to the teachers and parents to involve the
police if they catch students using drugs so that the suppliers can be
nabbed. Kebonyemodisa stated that while dagga abuse is prevalent in public
schools, students in the English medium schools use hard drugs.

He said they have arrested some students from these schools in the past. He
revealed that they might not have many cases of this nature from the elite
schools because the management do not like involving the police. "Instead
they solve the cases with the parents only because they do not want their
schools to be associated with a bad image as it will drive away their
customers who are the parents of these children," Kebonyemodisa said.