Cairns State High School cracks down on vaping, mobile phones and loitering in new toilets
Cigarettes, graffiti and bullies used to be the biggest worries in high school toilets, but Cairns students are facing a different set of anti-social behaviour in 2022.
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CIGARETTES, graffiti and bullies used to be the biggest worries in high school toilets, but Cairns students are facing a different set of anti-social behaviour in 2022.
Cairns State High School principal Christopher Zilm has issued a start-of-year newsletter to all parents celebrating the school’s spruced-up dunny blocks.
But it came with a warning.
“New measures are being put in place to monitor inappropriate behaviours like loitering, checking phones and vaping,” he wrote.
“Please discuss these issues with your child – they really are in and out, not for gatherings or entertainment.
“A very dim view is taken of those who do not respect these wonderful assets.”
The school’s former comfort stations were not the most salubrious of facilities but their replacements have caused a spectacular stir among the faculty.
The school’s Facebook page has shared no fewer than three posts about the toilets in the past week, declaring them “so fresh”, “just lovely” and “flushed with happiness”.
Mr Zilm is their biggest fan.
“I love these toilets and believe that such standards are necessary to help provide a safe and happy school,” he wrote.
“In other words: ‘Happy toilets, good learning outcomes!’”
Furtive vaping trips in the dunnies are now a serious problem at high schools.
Alcohol and Drug Foundation research states 14 per cent of Australians aged 12-17 have tried an e-cigarette with about 32 per cent of these students having used one in the past month.
Students who had vaped most commonly reported getting the last e-cigarette they had used from friends (63 per cent), siblings (8 per cent) or parents (7 per cent).
About 12 per cent of students reported buying an e-cigarette themselves.
Those who used vapes were three times more likely to smoke combustible tobacco than those who had not.
Mobile phone addiction has also reared its head with Cairns State High School taking drastic measures to force students into a digital detox.
Mr Zilm announced a lunchtime ban on mobile phone use in 2020 in an effort to encourage students to spend an extra 80 minutes per day running around, talking to people and enjoying real life.
However, Queensland has not followed other states’ lead to institute a blanket ban of mobile phones at all state schools – a response to an epidemic of cyber-bullying that has swept through the nation.
Mobile phones are banned from all state schools in Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia, with primary schools a no-phone zone in NSW and South Australia.
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Originally published as Cairns State High School cracks down on vaping, mobile phones and loitering in new toilets
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