DRUG SCANDALS PUT SCHOOLS AT 'HIGH RISK'

CANBERRA - Australian schools have been rocked by new drug revelations
following studies showing a high rate of drug use among the country's
teenagers.

The new head of education in New South Wales has admitted to a term in
prison as a former heroin addict and an exclusive Catholic college in
Melbourne is in trouble for expelling a schoolyard cannabis dealer
without telling police.

The revelations follow growing concern at the link between drugs and
crime - especially among the young - and studies showing a disturbing
level of illicit teenage drug use.

The most recent survey by the federal Health Department's drug
strategy branch showed that 25 per cent of all high school students
had smoked cannabis, rising to almost 40 per cent for 16 to
17-year-olds. Between 3 and 4 per cent had also used hallucinogens,
amphetamines, cocaine and opiates such as heroin or morphine.

In Sydney, newly appointed Education Director-General Michael
Coutts-Trotter urged the people of NSW to accept that "redemption is
possible" and allow him the chance to show his worth after the Daily
Telegraph revealed he had spent three years in jail in relation to the
distribution of heroin. Coutts-Trotter is a former Labor staffer and
is married to federal shadow minister Tanya Plibersek.

He was jailed in 1986, aged 19, but on his release made a new life for
himself. He was chief of staff for former NSW Treasurer Michael Egan,
became director-general of the Commerce Department, and gained
top-level security clearance when he was a member of the Australian
Security Intelligence Organisation's counter-terrorism
sub-committee.

Yesterday he told ABC radio that he understood public concern at his
background.

"To a degree I think it is a perfectly legitimate interest in the
facts of my life," he said.

"They have been laid out before. Every time I've applied for a job
I've told people about my background, about my drug conviction, as I
should - as I must. I just hope I'm given the chance to prove myself
by performing rather than being misjudged."

In Melbourne, police are investigating the expulsion of a year 11
student at the exclusive Jesuit school Xavier College for selling
cannabis to other students.

Three teenagers who confessed to buying drugs from the student have
been suspended.

All were caught after other students alerted teachers to the
schoolyard dealing.

The incident has caused additional concern because the school did not
inform police.

Xavier deputy principal Dominic Calipari told the Herald Sun that the
school had decided on counselling rather than police action.

The school had spoken with the boys' parents and had told other
students of the incident.

Police said they were concerned that the confiscated drugs were not
handed to them, and that further inquiries would be made.