BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Mar. 27.2018 – EDUCATION officials on St. Kitts are continuing to grapple with drug use in schools across the island, with Saddlers Secondary being the latest institution having recorded an incident.
Education Minister Shawn Richards confirmed during the Prime Minister’s recent press conference, that the institution has recorded a number of instances of students being discovered with drugs.
While responding to reporters’ questions on drug use at that school, Minister Richards disclosed that he is aware of the fact that they do have an issue with students using illegal drugs at that particular institution.
“It was just I think last week – the fifth - that the Deputy Chief Education Officer sent a message, the first part of the message read: ‘Frequent visits to Saddlers Secondary School have revealed that far too many of the students are involved with illegal drugs’.
According to Richards, it is not the first time that they have received such complaints from that institution.
To this end, he revealed that the Ministry has carried out several programmes to address the problem, not only at Saddlers Secondary but at all secondary education institutions around the island.
The Minister pointed to the Teens and Police Services (TAPS) programme as one such initiative implemented within schools to curb drug use.
Richards said coming out of that programme, police officers have been assigned to all secondary schools in St. Kitts.
He noted that currently, there is one officer being shared between the Basseterre High School and the Washington Archibald High School; one being shared between Verchilds High School and the Charles E. Mills Secondary School, along with one between Cayon High and Saddlers Secondary.
Due to limited resources, the minister confessed that they are not able to have single officers attached at the individual secondary schools.
Additionally, Richards said the Boys Mentorship Programme is currently ongoing, and budgetary allocations were provided for in the 2018 appropriations for school physiologists to assist with issues of drugs.
Moreover, it revealed that at the same institution a student was found with a cutlass and Minister Richards disclosed that when questioned it discovered that the pupil brought the weapon in response to a threat made against him by another student. .
“These are very real concerns that we have within schools,” Richards said. “When those complaints come we get parents involved, we get police involved. Unfortunately, in some instances, the very adults that we have placed in the schools have been helping the student, whether through the use of drugs or some illegal acts.”
