‘Drugs, available at a shop near you’. Barring an official sign stating this “facility”, a school for children who need reform is faced with the ugly and worrisome prospect of drugs being sold openly in its vicinity.
The worried priest who is the principal of the school, has been desperately seeking help from the police to bust the drug den, which masquerades as a shop, and is run by a lady on the banks of a small lake near the school.
“There is a lake just meters away, on the banks of which is a small shop run by a lady, who has constructed a small room behind and many boys and girls of our school are smoking drinking and having drugs,” said the priest.
He says that the school has asked for police help umpteen number of times but to no avail.
“I have asked police help number of times to send two policemen before and after the school timings but they come for one or two days and disappear,” he said.
The principal said fights break out every day, outside the school since there are anti-social elements coming from outside.
“These boys even tried to kidnap a girl by dragging her into a car, from just outside the school but the neighbours rescued her by blocking the vehicle,” he said.
The Father disclosed that recently, another boy assaulted a passerby with a knife in the area after an altercation
“They were totally under the influence of drugs. The police came to the school to make inquiries and that is when we came to know about the incident”.
The principal says that it is a set pattern for the police to make a token appearance when there is trouble, and then disappear.
The police too are circumspect in making arrests since the majority of the children in the school are minors. But letting them free, has led to the situation reach such an alarming state.
The school, itself is beacon of hope as the Principal and staff strive to rehabilitate the students.
Right now these children are a neglected lot but the school is making all efforts to bring them back to reality, said the Principal
“We are a school which deals with all these kind of addicts. Almost 25% of them are drug addicts,” he says adding “people ask why we keep these children but for us even if we keep them for three hours we save them from the evil for that much time.”
“What they are doing outside thereafter we have no control over that,” the principal says.
Hence, he adds, “we concentrate more on value education, I tell them about the effects of drugs. Indirectly I give them talks. Thinking hopefully somebody will change.”
“Parents tell us there is a lot of change but hardcore fellows you can’t do much,” he says.
Needs a united fight
The Father feels that accusing these children or police or politicians will not help and all educated people must come together to fight this menace.
“If one body can be formed of politicians, educationists, doctors, engineers and journalists, etc, and work in this regard I think we can make a .big difference,” he says.
*(Herald has withheld the name of the School and the Principal to prevent identification and recognition, since the children are minors)
