School ejects 12 drug-ring pupils
Twelve boys have been kicked out of a top North Shore school after it discovered students were using and supplying cannabis. Westlake Boys High School started an investigation about a fortnight ago after a tip-off that one student had been seen with the drug. The probe netted 16 pupils. Headmaster Craig Monaghan was involved in about 30 interviews to uncover what he described as a "small, contained ring".
I love how Monaghan just kept referring to these 16 boys as a ‘small and contained ring’, a ‘small and contained ring’, a ‘small and contained ring’ – we get it, you are desperately trying to minimize the effect to your precious little school. There is no point throwing 12 of these kids out of school for something as innocuous as weed, that is a damaging move that hurts the kids and shows the contempt Westlake have for their students over their precious stupid reputation. It infuriates me when Schools expel their students, the ‘cure’ of keeping students safe from drugs for their own welfare is shown up for the lie that it is, how much more damaging to the students welfare is being thrown out of their school over a spliff? The Schools then twist the argument and say that they are doing it for the welfare of the other students, which of course is another farce, the real reason is because Schools are terrified anything might damage their precious reputations, and that is why these students are punished so badly, for the Headmasters ego. The irony is that it is Craig Monaghan who sounds like he needs the joint and chill the fuck out, of course you punish students for bringing drugs to school, drugs and kids don’t mix – but expelling students for little more than School reputation is just backwards.
What if they were suppling alcohol bomber?
ReplyDeleteOr meth?
Kids fucked up, kids get an "action lead to consequences" lesson.
Like your strawman argument though, bring up a reason that has not been mentioned by anyone but you, then argue against it.
NZ schools appear to me to be another aspect of a widespread culture of coersion in NZ. The whole school uniform is a symptom of the thing I refer to. The rationale for it is bizarre: in order to "prevent" minor teenage fashion competition and some nagging of parents, the schools REQUIRE all parents to spend many hundreds of dollars per child to wear uniforms. You aren't ALLOWED to send your kid to school without one. What a bizarrely coercive and expensive solution for some anecdotal teenage nagging.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's last uniform cost $800. That's 16$ / week per annum - equal to Cullen's tax cut in October. I can honestly say there is not ONE item of clothing I have NOT bought my daughter becasue she has a school uniform. Her closet and chest of drawers are full of clothes she could just as easily wear to school.
There are a lot of cultural isues with schools.....and expelling kids rather than helping them is just one of them. had probation already been tried and failed?
Having said that, maybe these kids really are hopeless losers. Schools are there to teach kids, not provide social recovery services to low-level criminals and / or goonish hoons. If the limb can't be cured, you cut it off.
As usual, we don't know all the facts. We haven't met the kids. We don't know how they have behaved, so can only speculate.
Truthseeker,
ReplyDeleteSchool uniforms have been around longer than the concept of "teenager".
"As usual, we don't know all the facts. We haven't met the kids. We don't know how they have behaved, so can only speculate."
Hahaha, you must still be new here truthseeker.
This is tu meke, and this blog is by bomber, the left version of talkback radio.
No facts, no reason, just reaction and hyperbole.
Well, you see the thing is Bomber, that dope is illegal... get it? That means it's against the law. That means kids shouldn't have it at all, let alone at school.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of how harmless you believe dope to be, it is an illegal substance and the school did the right thing. Beer and RTDs are legal but you sure would expect to get expelled from school for drinking at school or selling it to your mates wouldn't you?
NS
These kids are only in Year 10. Now they are unlikely to be sitting any NCEA and therefore getting no chance to complete their school qualifications. How damaging is that compared to the effect of cannabis?
ReplyDeleteIt would be naive to think that in ANY secondary school in the country there wouldn't be at least 12 students that could potentially be in the same position.
The fact that these students have been caught-out and put before the board should have been a pretty large deterrent in itself without ending their high school career for the sake of the schools reputation.
Wise up, Westlake Boys couldn't care less about about those kids' careers. They care about their reputation, end of story, and they put their "no tolerance" policy in place because we, the public, love all this praise punishment and damn leniency crap. According to the school even the kids' parents are writing in and saying "good job".
ReplyDeleteAnd nobody cares about the hypocrisy that dope is less harmful than the legal drugs, that's for sure!
Yeah, more than one of those kids are now bound to fall off the rails but if the teachers at Westlake were troubled by that thought they wouldn't be working there. Anyway, it can only boost Westlake's reputation and the moral majority will now be fighting one another to get their kids in there. And if and when one of these "excluded" kids grows up to be a hater and a crook we will all stick our heads back in the sand and congratulate Westlake for protecting the other lads by turfing out that menace at an early age!! Let someone else deal with them eh.
I am the `lucky` new teacher of one of these little darlings.
ReplyDeleteTo the anon 10:57, all these kids have new schools. Public schools must take them. Their future has not been destroyed.
ReplyDelete>
ReplyDelete>>These kids are only in Year 10. Now they are unlikely to be sitting any NCEA and therefore getting no chance to complete their school qualifications.
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Deano gives wise insight, and at the very least they could continue their education and take exams through the Correspondence School!
Oh, that's right, correspondance school means having self discipline and a desire to succeed, these guys just have a desire to acquire! OK then, they can buy a PhD on-line from an 'american university', in sex, fatigue, drugs, rock & roll and how to pass the time in a locked 8"x4" room without a view!