Schools are to be given formal powers to search students they strongly suspect of having drugs or weapons. Staff will even be able to use force if the pupil is deemed a potential risk to someone on school grounds. They're among draft Education Ministry guidelines developed in response to increasing concerns about a lack of guidance on how to handle kids with prohibited items. They are set to be available to all schools by the end of the school term next month. [continues 356 words]
A high school that forced students to strip to their underwear while they underwent drug tests has promised to adopt new disciplinary procedures. Investigators have found that Rotorua Boys' High may have infringed the Bill of Rights by conducting the draconian drug testing on pupils. But after conducting his own inquiry, the school's statutory manager Dennis Finn is refusing to apologise to parents. He said "letters of explanation" would be sent out instead. Finn had confidence in principal Chris Grinter and deputy principal Fred Whata after investigating the allegations. [continues 262 words]
Drug testing in the workplace and in schools should stop because it does more harm than good. So says former drug-busting American policeman of 26 years, Jack Cole, who's part of a national speaking tour next month. Other speakers coming to Auckland, Wellington, Palmerston North or Christchurch include Eleanor Schockett, a retired judge from Florida, and Eddie Ellison, a British officer of 30 years. They are part of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which is trying to stop the war on drugs. [continues 321 words]
An intermediate school has secretly offered a 12-year-old boy and his family more than $10,000 compensation after accusing him of smoking and supplying cannabis during school time and subsequently expelling him. A source said the boy and his family had been devastated by the allegations made by Auckland's Hibiscus Coast Intermediate school. The boy had lost confidence, felt ostracised and believed word was out in the community he was a drug seller. "He was scarred by the allegations and being labelled a drug dealer has humiliated the family," said the source. [continues 501 words]
The mother of a special needs student expelled for smoking cannabis out of school hours is elated her son will return to school. In the Auckland High Court on Friday, justice David Baragwanath quashed the Northcote College board of trustees' expulsion and ordered the fifth-former be allowed back to class. The trustees have to pay the $7495 legal bill. Baragwanath had said previously the school appeared to breach the Education Act requirement that principals try to arrange alternative schooling for students who have been expelled. [continues 313 words]
A 15-year-old with minor intellectual disabilities has been expelled from school for smoking cannabis. But two other students from the North Shore, Auckland, school caught smoking cannabis on the same day in a different incident have been reinstated. Northcote College student Siliato Soagia was spotted smoking cannabis at Highpoint Shopping Centre in Birkenhead in March. Although it was his first offence, he has been denied re-entry into the school which has a one strike and you're out drugs policy for senior students. Soagia's lawyer, Patrick Walsh, will file papers in the High Court at Auckland this week to fight the decision. [continues 123 words]
