Break-ups and liquor

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 4

Break-ups and liquor

School principals in Christchurch do not believe that the dangers of imbibing too much liquor or taking drugs should be the subject of stern warnings at the end of the school year. Many concede that breakups have sometimes been occasions for drinking sprees outside school premises, but are doubtful that last-minute warnings would be effective. ■ Such instruction, they say, should* be constant over the years and part of a pupil’s whole environment. ’ < ' The headmaster of Hornby High’ t’School, Mr. > A. E. L. Britton, said he thought it was best to treat the subject in a “low-key way.” The more noise made, the more damage might arise. The

School Principals’ Association, of which he is f. chairman, had no policy bn how to deal with the problem.. Aranui High School’s head, Mr N. Sinclair also said that warnings ( might help to creat the problem Neither was it easy to “get the message across” in a big school. He hoped, however, by “precept and example” to have already shown the pupils what was expected of them. The headmaster of Cashmere High School, Mr R. A. Chapman,'Said thab“nfaking a “big deal c" it” atHhe last momentwould not be heeded by pupils. It was a problem in the community, he said, and unless people’s attitudes were developed over the years, he doubted

the effectiveness of warnings. Questions of' drunkeness and related issues were discussed often during the school year, he said. The topic was part of a social education programme given to fourth formers and also cropped up in the physical education programme and elsewhere.

The Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police (Mr G. E. Twentyman) said that every year near Christmas there were cases of young people of good repute losing control of themselves because of liquor. The consequences could be drastic. “Many are not used to taking liquor in such quantity and their loss of control often ends in court,” he said.