The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Glenys Hanna Martin does not support Bahamas Union of Teachers president Belinda Wilson’s call for students to be drug tested.

The debate came after three ninth-grade students were hospitalised this week for ingesting marijuana at a school on Baillou Hill Road. 

Mrs Hanna Martin said the number of students caught using drugs has been declining.

“If testing is deemed necessary by the parent, then the parent in conjunction with that child can facilitate that, but I do not see that as a role at this time of the Ministry of Education,” she told reporters before the House of Assembly sat yesterday.

“If there is a suspicion that students are using drugs, which is a self-destructive act to some extent, then we should work with that child through our counselling, etc.”

Mrs Hanna Martin linked marijuana use to what students may be experiencing off campus, calling it anti-social and self-destructive.

“When you have external challenges, they manifest on the campus,” she said. “It’s just the reality of life. These young people come from communities and they come on the campus. You’re not going to have a sterile environment unfortunately. I would love to have that, but you have to deal with what presents.”

“These are young people. We seek to help them come out on their own and if there’s a criminal offence that’s out of our hands, that’s dealt with otherwise.”