Drug prevention education drive pushed, drug tests on tutors, students eyed

Incorporating drug prevention education in the school curriculum and conducting surprise random drug tests among teachers and staff of schools’ administrations are among ways pushed to ensure that the youth will not be involved in illegal drugs.

The Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) offered these alternatives amid the recent incident involving six senior high school students who were caught by the police smoking marijuana at the back of the Cebu City Sports Complex (CCSC) on Wednesday (June 13).

Carmen Remedios Durano-Meca, CPADAO head, underscored the importance of regularly conducting surprise drug tests among teachers and staff of the school administration.

“The importance of education on drug prevention, and the conduct of random drug testing for teachers, non-teaching staff, it would be very effective in terms of prevention,” said Meca.

She said that CPADAO had already scheduled a meeting with officials from the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) and the Commission on Higher Education in Central Visayas (Ched-7) to brief them about their plans.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, for his part, said that he would rely on the Sangguniang Kabataan officials to get the youth involved in activities to keep them away from illegal drugs.

On plans to conduct random drug testing on students, Osmena said that he would leave that decision to Garry Lao, chief of the city’s anti-drug office.

Meanwhile, Officials from the Department of Education (DepED) – Cebu City Schools Division are planning to meet all public school principals to strengthen their advocacy against illegal drugs.

The meeting came amid the recent incident involving the pot-smoking students in Cebu City.

Dr. Bianito A. Dagatan, schools division superintendent of Cebu City Division, said that he had already instructed his legal team to conduct a separate investigation of the incident.

Dagatan also challenged other schools to strengthen their security measures to make sure that no illegal activity would happen inside their school premises.