POT SMOKERS' PENALTY HAS MOM FUMING

Smoking marijuana on school grounds. Punishment: three days in Grade 2.

That was the type of penalty doled out to five Grade 7 students at a
Shelburne County school this week.

"It was very effective," said Pam Smith, acting principal at Evelyn
Richardson Memorial Elementary School in Shag Harbour.

"The older students weren't pleased to be there and the younger ones
realized this is what happens when you do something wrong."

But one parent said she is very unhappy with the punishment. Her son is in
Grade 3 and one of the boys was placed in her child's class.

"Little kids look up to big kids," said the woman, who didn't want to be
identified for fear her son might be bullied by the older children.

She feels the younger ones will see the older boys getting a "slap on the
wrist" and believe there are no consequences to doing drugs.

Last Friday, Ms. Smith discovered the five Grade 7s had hidden a small bag
of marijuana on school grounds.

A parent of one of the boys contacted the school after finding her child
with drugs. Another Grade 7 boy had sold them the marijuana.

None of the boys have been problem students in the past, Ms. Smith said.

The five were given three days' detention in lower grades and the sixth boy
received a similar five-day detention.

RCMP were contacted but a police spokesman said it is more an education
issue and not a criminal matter.

"I think it's an isolated incident," said Cpl. Michel Lacroix of the
Barrington detachment.

"We have met with the kids and with their parents to discuss the issue," he
said.

Because students have lost so much time this year, Ms. Smith did not want
the boys to miss any more by being sent home, so she decided to place them
in the lower grades.

The school called a meeting of parents Tuesday night to discuss the
situation. After hearing the woman's complaints, Ms. Smith decided the boys
should spend the rest of their detentions in a class by themselves.

Ms. Smith, who usually teaches a Primary/Grade 1 split class, has had an
older child detained in her class before and found it to be a very
effective punishment.

But after the complaint, she decided to separate the boys from the younger
children.

She put the boys in the music room and hired a substitute to teach them.
She had the music teacher go class to class for the day.

The boys involved in the marijuana incident had been taught about drug
awareness in Grade 6, Ms. Smith said.

However, they'll all get a refresher course next week and all Grade 6 and 7
students at the school will attend a drug education seminar.

A similar event will be put on for parents Monday evening at the school. It
will also cover how to talk to children about drugs.

But that's little comfort for one mother of a Grade 3 student.

"Maybe I was being naive, but I didn't want to have to talk to my
eight-year-old about drugs," she said.

But because her son knows an older boy was put in his classroom because of
drugs, she now has to explain the situation to him.

"It's been a wake-up call for a lot of parents," Ms. Smith said.

"It's not something you want to have to discuss."

Starting next year, Barrington RCMP will also give a drug education course
at the school.

Cpl. Lacroix said a member of the detachment has been trained in a 14-week
program known as DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education.