Two weeks ago a 15-year-old boy died at school in Milan after smoking a joint which appears to have contained traces of crack cocaine. Now the Mayor of Milan has offered drugs test kits to parents who want them and the Health Minister wants to send the "health police" [Nas] into schools to check for drugs. The latter move has caused uproar , with parents and teachers saying they are perfectly capable of monitoring the situation themselves. What do you think?
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14 comments:
I think the police should do it, but not in a confrontational way, rather to promote education and raising awareness about drugs. How shocking and terrible that a young boy should die this way.
I'm not at all sure about this one myself.
I agree with the parents and teachers.
I don't think American Inner city schools are nice environments for students, and we have to be careful about heading in that direction, unless it is unavoidable.
I don't see that this is going to stop such a thing happening again.
I don't think I agree with the countermeasure but frankly parents and teachers are incapable of monitoring those situations. Everyone needs more education on the dangers of drugs,even pot; students, teachers and parents alike. But no one believes that the bad things will happen to them so children will always experiment.
This is a tragedy indeed.
Would these health police be the same ones who check up on if you are sick or not when you don't come in to work Welshcakes?
regards
jmb
Inviting the police in seems like a knee-jerk reaction to a single tragic event that may be counter-productive as it will drive the youngsters to take more precautions to hide their behaviour. Most of the time Cannabis is harmless and in this case it was contaminated with something more dangerous. This exemplifies the problems of prohibition, something which I am personally sceptical of.
I'm not sure that teachers and parents are capable of dealing with it - or even aware of it sometimes - but the drugs police into schools?
They have a drugs dog in prison. If he sits down in front of you, you're not allowed in as it means you smell of drugs. I asked if I could borrow him for when my children came home from clubbing!
It's a hard call. If a pupil takes drugs outside school at lunchtime and dies in class that afternoon, one could not blame the school. If there's drug taking at school, the headmaster/mistress should be responsible and so perhaps may welcome police assistance to sort it out but that is rather different from random drug squad swoops on schools.
I'm not sure either.
Crushed is right about American inner-city schools. I went to one as a kid. We walked through metal detectors and were occasionally drug-tested, and this was in middle school.
I hope Milan doesn't go down that road.
Teachers in the UK are now expected to check schoolchildren for knives. Needless to say, they are not too happy about that.
I thought it was 6.30 and just realised it is 7.30 and I have to dash out and meet a friend for supper.
Hi, Ellee. Yes, it's terrible. It happened at breaktime and he died 10 minutes after taking the drug. It's a difficult one indeed, James. Interesting about US schools, Crushed. I see what you mean. Hi, jmb. Yes, if the teachers are going to monitor it then there has to be good on-going in-service training so that they know what to look for. Young people will always experiment, it is true. The health police are a uniformed branch, jmb. It's a county doctor who comes round when you take a "sickie". Hi, Wolfie. Yes, I see that it could actually make matters worse. The health minister says that she herself is anti-prohibition, btw. Liz, I tend to agree. And teachers have enough to worry about. As I say above, there will have to be more training. I didn't know that about drugs dogs in prisons. WW, this definitely happened on the school premises. I tend to agree with you - it's the Head's responsibility but the police could be called to help. Ruthie, I didn't know you went through metal detectors there. I fear it might come to that in the UK. It can't be a nice atmosphere. Ellee, I've just seen the Tv report about this. I think the ATL union is right to instruct its teaching members not to search pupils - you can be in court if you touch one in any way these days. Isn't it sad that this even has to be an issue?
I don't know what the answer is, but it is frightening and one can only feel for the parents and family left behind....
shani
Hi, Snani. Yes, it must have been a terrible shock for them. One cannot imagine what they are going through now.
It's a sad blot on today's society, but obviously not all parents are keeping vigilant and this may be the way things have to be.
Lee - yes, it's sad and I fear you may be right.
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