Pubdate: Sat, 03 Jun 2000
Source: Illawarra Mercury (Australia)
Copyright: 2000 Illawarra Newspapers
Contact:  http://mercury.illnews.com.au/

GOVTS JOIN EFFORT TO STAMP OUT DRUGS IN SCHOOLS

Federal and state governments agreed on new rules yesterday to help stamp 
out the use and sale of illegal drugs in schools.

The national framework for protocols for drugs in schools builds on the 
$27million national school drug education strategy.

Prime Minister John Howard said governments had demonstrated through the 
framework that they were determined to work together in partnerships with 
schools, parents and local communities to address the issue of drugs in 
schools.

"The framework sets out an agreed set of guiding principles for schools to 
follow so that every school can have in place, a comprehensive set of 
protocols for drug education and for handling incidents involving drugs in 
schools," Mr Howard said.

"While recognising that individual schools have the discretion to enforce 
their existing rules, the significance of the framework is that it will 
assist schools in developing effective strategies in a nationally 
consistent way and improve existing approaches by reference to the guiding 
principles."

The guiding principles include:

* Possession, use or distribution of illicit or unsanctioned drugs is not 
acceptable in schools and this message should be delivered in a clear and 
consistent way.

* Schools need to have prevention and intervention policies and procedures 
integrated with other school policies.

* Responses to drugs at school need to be applied fairly and consistently.

* Principals and staff need professional development in working with 
students involved in drug-related incidents.

The framework is underpinned by two key elements.

* An emphasis on prevention through education, information and responsible 
school environments.

* An emphasis on early intervention through appropriate procedures for 
dealing with incidents involving the possession, use and/or distribution of 
drugs within schools.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Thunder