7 May 2009

Bugger all drugs and dangerous goods - what's wrong with today's kids?

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times reports that there were 26 cases of students found with illegal drugs in public schools last year (no mention of the teachers), and just five cases of dangerous items (sharpened rulers etc).

This really is unnacceptable. What’s wrong with the kids of today? There should be far more of this stuff going around.

Or do these statistics indicate there’s not a lot of looking for trouble going on?

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bd84, I actually work with teenagers so I know for a fact it’s not a realistic number, hence the sarcasm.

nyssa76 said :

Only 26 cases?

Gee, it must have been a slow year……

Only 26 times they actually found them and the school reported it. You could add a couple of zeros to the end to get a more realistic estimate.

Only 26 cases?

Gee, it must have been a slow year……

Skidbladnir said :

Valid point re: the Department, mono.
But the stats don’t look at drug use _at school, on school grounds_.

I know. But I included these figures to suggest undetected drug use at school might be a fair bit higher than 26 cases a year.

Valid point re: the Department, mono.
But the stats don’t look at drug use _at school, on school grounds_.

I hope someone remembers these statistics for use the next time some bozo goes on another ‘the youth of today are all evil’ rant.

Skidbladnir said :

So I have two seperate problems with the stats.
1) Most kids would be smart enough to keep them off school grounds, and those who aren’t know how to hide them from adults.
2) Anyone who takes credit for good statistics eventually becomes chained to the bad ones, so there’s an incentive for the Department to keep the reported numbers down.

These figures don’t reflect the level of drug use in schools. However, I think it is unfair to question the honesty of Education Department officials. Details of any suspension in a school has to be reported to the department. I find it difficult to believe that any ACT Public School headmaster would not regard having drugs at school as an offense warranting suspension. I think it might be more a case of

Skidbladnir said :

Or do these statistics indicate there’s not a lot of looking for trouble going on?

No doubt the mix of drugs used would have changed in the last 10 years from when this data was gathered

Illicit drugs
The report on the 1999 secondary school students’ drug survey includes
this useful summary:
• More than half of all secondary school students reported having tried illicit drugs
at least once in their lifetime, with around 15% reporting recent use
• Since 1996 there has been an almost 6 [percentage points] decrease in the
proportion of students reporting having ever tried an illicit drug – much of which
is associated with a decrease in cannabis use
• 16 year old males (59.6%) and 15 year old females (65.6%) were most likely to
report having ever tried an illicit drug at least once
• Close to one-third of males (34.2%) and females (32.9%) reported having used
cannabis, representing a 6% decrease overall since 1996
• One in four students reported having tried inhalants in their lifetime, with 6%
reporting recent use
• Around 19% reported having tried tranquillisers, with less than 3% reporting
recent use
• Close to 14% of students reported having used other illicit drugs
• Around 5% of students reported having ever used a needle to inject an illicit drug,
with 2% reporting having shared a needle
• 25% of needle users reported having used a needle exchange service.

No doubt Independent and Catholic School students have similar levels of illicit drug and alcohol use.

If only I was a goth. would have been a match made in heaven.
lol

FC said :

Jim Jones said :

FC said :

Haha.
I was definitly not a nerd. I just didn’t want to be walking around with food in my teeth.
Would have totally ruined my chances of dating that hot skater yr 10 guy!

I was a skater.

I’m wearing hi-top Vans right now.

… ooooh baby.

skaters are totally hot.

I always had a thing for goth girls.

Jim Jones said :

FC said :

Haha.
I was definitly not a nerd. I just didn’t want to be walking around with food in my teeth.
Would have totally ruined my chances of dating that hot skater yr 10 guy!

I was a skater.

I’m wearing hi-top Vans right now.

… ooooh baby.

skaters are totally hot.

V twin venom12:49 pm 07 May 09

I find it hard to believe that the spelling and grammer pedants haven’t sharpened their wits and jumped all over the mis-spelling of the word education at post #4.

Deadmandrinking12:22 pm 07 May 09

Good point on #3, FC?

What is it about getting caught all the time that makes you badass. I think it just makes you stupid.

Skidbladnir said :

…only 5 out of 38230 total students…being caught with ‘dangerous items such as sharpened pencils and rulers and firecrackers’…

Assuming only one of each dangerous item per student, (and firecrackers shouldn’t even have been included), that’s not very many. It could easily be the contents of the pencil case of one lone disaffected student

Anyway, what’s so bad about sharpened pencils! FFS (note hip use of acronym), aren’t pencils supposed to be sharpened? Is the fear of them that seems to have gripped the Education Department based on their capacity to be used to write incendiary revolutionary poetry? Or draw savagely satirical cartoons?

And where are the compasses and protractors and folding woodwork rulers with the brass tips that some of us used to torture the weedier element when we were students? In my school, children had access to the full armamentarium of weapons grade materials – we were inspired by the classic Japanese TV series ‘The Samurai’ to make our own star knives long before they became the ubercool backpack accessory they are today.

But these days are different. Pikachu Jesus was excited about going back to school this year because in Year 4 he would be allowed to use a ballpoint pen instead of a pencil!

FC said :

Haha.
I was definitly not a nerd. I just didn’t want to be walking around with food in my teeth.
Would have totally ruined my chances of dating that hot skater yr 10 guy!

I was a skater.

I’m wearing hi-top Vans right now.

… ooooh baby.

Skidbladnir said :

…I can only say that my reaction …was “That seems amazingly low”.

2) Anyone who takes credit for good statistics eventually becomes chained to the bad ones, so there’s an incentive for the Department to keep the reported numbers down.

If the general consensus of RiotACTers is that this seems like a very small number, this might not have as much to do with the Department as with teachers. Perhaps, like us, teachers expect more drugs and weapons, and only report a small proportion of instances. Mandatory Reporting only covers sexual and physical abuse.

And Gen Y don’t use combs: they use hairbrushes!

Haha.
I was definitly not a nerd. I just didn’t want to be walking around with food in my teeth.
Would have totally ruined my chances of dating that hot skater yr 10 guy!

As alarmed as Doszpot may be, and having not been a public school student myself, I can only say that my reaction to only 5 out of 38230 total students (ie: 0.013%, “The figures are across primary, high school and college sectors…”) being caught with ‘dangerous items such as sharpened pencils and rulers and firecrackers’ was “That seems amazingly low”.
Same for the drugs.

As to the drugs in schools, I think a key word in the sentence is missing, there were 26 recorded incidents of students found possessing drugs.
Students need to be found with drugs first, and then have it recorded as an incident.

So I have two seperate problems with the stats.
1) Most kids would be smart enough to keep them off school grounds, and those who aren’t know how to hide them from adults.
2) Anyone who takes credit for good statistics eventually becomes chained to the bad ones, so there’s an incentive for the Department to keep the reported numbers down.

FC said :

I used to take a toothbrush to school when I had braces.
And I took a comb to school too.

NERD!!!

FC said :

I used to take a toothbrush to school when I had braces.
And I took a comb to school too.

ok, FC, the better question would have been “who takes a comb or toothbrush to school if they live in charnwood??”

I used to take a toothbrush to school when I had braces.
And I took a comb to school too.

Furry Jesus said :

Sharpened rulers? I suppose comb or toothbrush shivs are a bit old school, aren’t they? Still, it’s nice to know that students still use rulers, let alone wooden ones, and that they have learnt at least some basic woodworking skills.

Makes me feel a little more optomistic about little Pikachu Jesus’s chances of a useful eductaion once he hits high school.

who takes a comb or toothbrush to school??

Sharpened rulers? I suppose comb or toothbrush shivs are a bit old school, aren’t they? Still, it’s nice to know that students still use rulers, let alone wooden ones, and that they have learnt at least some basic woodworking skills.

Makes me feel a little more optomistic about little Pikachu Jesus’s chances of a useful eductaion once he hits high school.

From my time at school I only remember one kid actually getting busted with drugs. However a hell of a lot of us had things on us at school. But you think if a teacher tried to look in our bags we would let them? No way. A simple ‘No’, and walking away would occur.
Maybe kids are just learning more and more that the teachers really can’t force them tos how them their bags or pockets etc.
Not saying that that is either right or wrong, or good or bad, but just the way it seems to be.

Kids are so lame these days.

Little goody two-shoes: they listen to sooky-la-la music, the boys dress up like dainty poodles, and they all live at home until they’re in their mid-20s.

At this rate, society will be completely emasculated within a decade and independent thought driven out of extinction.

hur hur hur. 26 cases?? that was a typical day at charny high. Obviously, kids today have become far more adept at hiding their drugs and knives…

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