Drug dogs haven’t been released into SA schools, despite Premier Steven Marshall’s high-profile election pledge for crackdown
Sniffer dogs got the green light to scour SA high schools for illicit drugs earlier this year – but none of them have.
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Schools haven’t asked for a single sniffer dog to be sent in to look for drugs, despite the State Government’s controversial election pledge to launch the crackdown.
Premier Steven Marshall pitched the high-profile plan from Opposition in August of 2017, saying SA must impose a tough new “zero tolerance approach to the scourge of illicit drugs in our schools”.
A Freedom of Information search by the now-Labor Opposition has found that neither the Education Department nor SA Police have any record of schools requesting the searches under a new protocol that was launched earlier this year.
Education Minister John Gardner has confirmed to The Advertiser that the new powers had not been used, but said that was to be expected as schools were still coming to grips with the protocol.
That 27-page protocol, approved by both Police and the Education Department and released in March this year, details why and when sniffer dogs can enter schools as well as how principals and students must respond to searches.
The policy applies to all public schools, while private sites are able to opt-in.
Police have always had powers to enter schools on suspicion of drug activity, but rarely used it.
Opposition police spokesman Lee Odenwalder said Mr Marshall had made “a flashy announcement before the election, which proves to be a fizzer after the election”.
He also questioned why the high-profile pledge had been made in the first place given the apparent lack of interest from principals in using it.
“Steven Marshall went to the election with this policy as a centrepiece of his so-called ‘war on drugs’,” Mr Odenwalder said.
“Yet 18 months since the election, the evidence shows not one school principal has sought to have sniffer dogs.
Mr Gardner said the Government would not “foreshadow any potential specific engagement” in the future of sniffer dogs in schools, as doing so “would defeat the purpose”.
He said the Government was “very serious about deterring young people from having any involvement with illegal drugs”, and dogs were only one part of a wider strategy.
“The focus of our energy in delivering our drug education and prevention strategy has been through a radical uplift in the number of school student supported to receive education from our NGO partners,” Mr Gardner said.
“Our $2.9 million drug education package has resulted in a massive increase in the use of drug education programs in schools since it was implemented.”
Mr Gardner said Life Education SA, a charity specialising in the wellbeing of young people, had reported a 50 per cent increase in the number of students receiving drug education programs annually.