'We stand together' say Ross-shire secondaries as schools unite to tackle spike in antisocial behaviour
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A FIRST-of-its-kind bid to crack down on drugs, alcohol and antisocial behaviour across Ross-shire will see all the county's secondary schools band together with youth workers and police to tackle what's acknowledged to be a growing problem.
Parents of pupils at secondary schools in Dingwall, Fortrose, Alness, Invergordon and Tain were invited to attend an open meeting hosted by Dingwall Academy this week after a no-holds-barred letter jointly signed by head teachers of all five was sent out to parents.
It warned: "Pupils, parents and carers need to be aware that young people are using and supplying harmful substances across our communities and seem to believe that such behaviour is 'normal' for them."
It said young people are now able to access substances ranging from cannabis to prescription drugs and that reports of antisocial behaviour – including open air drunkeness, vefrbal abuse and associated danger to the public is on the rise.
Around 100 parents attended this week's meeting at which Dingwall Academy head teacher Karen Cormack said: “We are taking collective responsibility for our communities, we are looking at what is going on and we are saying we would like to do something about it. Sometimes it would be easy to do nothing. One of the reasons we did this collectively between the five schools is there is a danger sometimes that if you step forward and say, 'well actually we want to do something about this’ then you become the school that is perceived to have a problem.
“So we deliberately as a group of schools came together to try and work together on this, so I hope you find this a positive step.”
It's believed to be the first time such collective action has been taken.
The dangers of the “county lines” phenomena of young teens from cities being used as drug mules to target rural areas is also an ongoing concern for police.
One parent with a secondary school age child welcomed the move: “I think there are more problems than most people in the community realise and a united approach is the only way we are going to resolve it. I think it involves the parents being informed, the schools working together and also with the police."
Councillor Graham Mackenzie, who spent decades as a teacher, had stints at both Alness and Dingwall, said: "It is not often that you can get five schools to get together to do something like this.
“It is a shared problem and a shared responsibility and the notion of sharing is evident with the school, the police, the youth workers and others coming together to try and deal with the problem.
“It is already apparent that the police are already being very proactive, because these are not just antisocial activities for our schools these are antisocial activities for our communities and our communities have been troubled by this, in Muir of Ord and Conon and Maryburgh as well as Dingwall.
“It is due to the police’s activity in coming together with the community to try and find ways to sort this that we are beginning to find small signs of success. They will be small signs of success because these things don’t change overnight.”
* What's your view? Are things bad in your area? Is this a sensible approach? Email newsdesk@spp-group.com
