I was a teacher for several years. I never understood people doing drugs at school. Why not ditch? Why not stay home? Find an abandon building? Get under a box? I caught a kid with his book propped up in front of him, hiding behind the book snorting something off his desk. I said, "Dude. Are you crazy? Do you LOVE to be in loads of trouble? Why don't you just stay home if you are going to do that?" He is 21 now, and been in rehab twice. I don't know if he's going to make it or not.
He didn't answer but I know the reason. Kids like the attention they get from the other kids. (No I did not write him up. I don't deal with cops for any reason. I don't trust them.)
We had two girls passed out in the bathroom, apparently from snorting "Sharpies".. those permanent markers. I didn't even know that was something to do. They both had black all over their noses. It was later discovered they were on heroin when they decided to snort sharpies. One of the girls is gone now, passed away at 19 from an overdose.
Once a girl in my class fell out of her chair backwards and broke her arm. She was laying there just laughing her ass off. Drunk as fuck. I had to have security come over because in that case, her arm was BROKEN big time.
All of these young people are doing all these substances then trying not to nod off or whatever. What a colossal waste of a high! What an enormous risk of getting in trouble! Kids don't care. It seemed to me that they used drugs like a peacock uses his feathers... to appear big and fancy. I never really cared if a student had been smoking a joint before they came in. Loaded students can be more interested in the story or poem, have more insightful comments, and are generally very appreciative that I treated them the same as always, high or not.
If you think about it realistically, heroin at school is like smoking in the parking lot at the police station. Security everywhere. Cams everywhere. Desperately seeking attention... sad. School cops can look right into the cars in the parking lot. I had kids pulled out of my classroom because there was a big fat bong sitting on a seat in their car. I had kids removed from class when the K9s came through because the kids had pipes or bongs in their backpacks. (When I asked one guy why he brought it to school, he said he didn't want his parents to find out. Guess what? The whole town found out.)
I know that schools are probably very different in Australia. When I taught in Compton, the kids could not try any of that stuff. They got searched from head to toe and wanded every morning before they were allowed in and once they were in, the gates were locked and they stayed in until the end of the day. In the suburbs kids had the opportunity to walk away from the school and use drugs but they stayed and used at school on purpose.
In Compton, the principal was the one who came to school high, carrying a pizza.