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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: School bars pupils over drug abuse
Herts Advertiser
Thursday 12 Oct 2006 THREE students have been permanently excluded from a top secondary school after an investigation into drug abuse. A further 13 students, all but one in Year 10 at St George's School in Harpenden, have been temporarily excluded for between five and 10 days depending on their involvement. The drug abuse first came to light at the end of the summer term but continued into the first weeks of the new term and involves the use of cannabis. Although none of it appears to have happened on school premises, head teacher Norman Hoare has spelt out to parents where it is occurring. In a letter to all parents, he describes Rothamsted Park as, "a notorious area", particularly near the skateboard ramp, Lydekker Park at the bottom of Sun Lane where the school is situated and public areas in Wheathampstead. Mr Hoare said this week that staff had their suspicions that there was drug abuse among Year 10 students at the end of last term after hearing rumours through the grapevine and knowing that a lot of students were congregating at Rothamsted Park. He went on: "We knew the weather was good but there is something in your bones when you are teachers and staff were concerned." Students were interviewed in line with the school's anti-drug policy and from those interviews, staff learned what had been happening. Mr Hoare said the cannabis was being supplied from youths outside the school who targeted areas where young people congregated. He maintained they came in from Luton and Hemel Hempstead and identified vulnerable youngsters. Worrying He went on: "It is confined to the 14 to 15 age group which is worrying and another reason why we were so extensive in our investigations. To start using cannabis in a light way at that age can lead to a greater involvement when they reach the 16 to 17 age bracket." Mr Hoare was particularly disappointed as Year 10 had been given a comprehensive drug presentation in July because that age group was recognised as vulnerable. He said: "I am upset and cross because we felt we had done our best with that age group and, having spent so much time, some of them went out at the end of term and during the course of August and became involved. It carried on in the first two to three weeks of September encouraged by the warm weather and the fair in the park." Parents had been shocked and upset by the news, Mr Hoare added, and said his decision to permanently exclude the three students had still to be ratified by the governing body. Three years ago the school had two sixth formers excluded for drug dealing and bringing it on to the premises but the last time there had been a major incident it had been in the mid 1990s. But Mr Hoare said that talking to other secondary school heads, it was clear that there was a recognisable cycle where incidents like that at St George's blew up and then nothing happened for a while. But he stressed that unless students learned to say no to drug pushers, they could expect to be excluded from the school.
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