HIGH SCHOOL CANED OVER DRUGS ISSUE

James Hargest High School was "behaving like a bully" and concerned
families should get together to force a change in the way it dealt with
problem students, an Invercargill youth advocate said yesterday.

Former Southland Youth at Risk committee chairman Bob Simpson said the
plight of a 14-year-old third-form boy, who James Hargest excluded last
month, was not an isolated case.

The James Hargest board of trustees decided to kick Scott Irvine out of
school after he admitted smoking cannabis.

The incident happened out of school time and away from the school grounds.

Scott was waiting for rugby practice to start and was not in school uniform
at the time.

He was interviewed by a senior teacher three days later and admitted he had
a mini cigar with a small amount of cannabis in it.

Mr Simpson said the Youth at Risk committee commissioned a report by Dr
Annette Beautrais, a suicide researcher at Christchurch Medical School,
after a cluster of suicides among James Hargest students during the late 1990s.

Six died within a two and a half-year period which Dr Beautrais found was
"atypically high" for a single school.

Her report, released in April 2000, says the school was in "need of
considerable support" and specific recommendations were made. Among them
was the need for James Hargest to:

Promote positive youth development.

Promote positive mental health.

Recognise depression.Promote the fostering of prosocial values.

Promote belief in the future.

Mr Simpson said the school's handling of Scott's situation "was inappropriate."

"Their business is turning out happy, well-adjusted students. That's what
we as a community give them millions of dollars to do."

Most families were reluctant to take on the school in case they put their
child's schooling at risk and that of their siblings.

"The school is big and powerful and most families are intimidated," Mr
Simpson said.

Once students had been at a school to a certain date in March of each year,
the school was funded for them for the whole year whether they were there
or not, he said.

"This is about James Hargest attempting to protect the school name so
children will queue up with the government funding that goes with them."

James Hargest board of trustees chairman Murray Frost, of Christchurch,
declined to comment.

The board had discussed the issue and "we don't want to be drawn into the
debate," Mr Frost said.