DRUGS SCANDAL AT TOP PE SCHOOL

The police will investigate how a group of pupils at the prestigious
Grey High School came into possession of a stash of dagga, in a case
that has highlighted drug use at upmarket schools in Port Elizabeth.

Superintendent Rodney Visser, the deputy area head of the police's
organised crime unit, said yesterday his unit intended looking into
the allegations of drug use and possible dealing at the school.

No charges, however, have been laid against a Grade Eight Grey boy and
several Grade Nine pupils who were found with the drug.

It is not clear if the boys were dealing in the drug or merely using
it. The school has confirmed the incident, but says an internal
inquiry will be held before a decision is taken on whether to expel
the pupils.

The Grey revelations have raised concern at the SA National Council on
Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which says staff and parents at
upmarket schools in the metro often resist drug awareness training and
live in a state of denial.

Many middle-class schools in the city prevented drug counsellors from
addressing parents about the dangers of abuse and how to look for the
signs, Sanca treatment co-ordinator Trixie Pereira said yesterday.

Pereira said that, while Sanca usually had no trouble introducing its
awareness programmes to pupils, getting through to parents - who were
ultimately responsible for their children's behaviour - was more difficult.

"Schools still have an attitude that 'it doesn't happen in our school'
and when it does they try to sweep it under the carpet - especially
the middle to upperclass and traditionally white schools.

"Schools in lower-income areas like the northern suburbs are much more
receptive (to education and prevention programmes) and readily agree
to us giving talks to parents there," she said.

Even where schools uncovered drug use and referred individual pupils
to Sanca for counselling, the organisation encountered resistance from
the school when it later tried to set up meetings with the general
parent body. Sometimes Sanca did not even get a reply to its offers.

When the organisation did get access to parents and persuaded a school
to arrange a meeting, the response was very poor.

"It's always the same group that turns up. You are selling the same
old story to those who are interested. It is not very often we make
contact with the parents, but those are the people who are responsible
- - those are the ones we need to reach."

She said, however, that Sanca had not yet approached Grey High
specifically to speak to its parents.

Wealthier parents did not take the drug risk seriously until their own
children were found with drugs or addicted, and were often offended by
the suggestion that they improve their own understanding of the problem.

Around a quarter of the drug users who go on Sanca's counselling and
"detox" programmes are aged between 10 and 19 years.

Children from private and upmarket former Model C government schools
have been referred to Sanca in recent years by schools and parents, in
one recent case a 13-year-old from Grey Junior School.

In terms of national education policy, schools must send pupils found
in possession of drugs for counselling before contemplating expulsion.

Supt Visser said the number of criminal cases at schools was "not
alarming", but he noted that two of three recent dagga and mandrax
cases in the metro involved elite institutions.

While the use of hard drugs such as heroin had increased in the metro
lately, school pupils were more likely to use dagga, mandrax and
alcohol, according to Sanca and the police.

Eastern Province Herald