[WATCH] Database fail meant parents unaware son missed school to sell drugs

Parents distraught to find son playing truant and dealing drugs

“My son went in there with seven O-levels and he is now a drug dealer. I see him drowning with every day that passes and I can’t do anything because they tell me ‘it’s normal at this age’ or they simply ignore me.”

In an interview with MaltaToday, the parents of a 16-year-old student at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary in Naxxar expressed their despair and frustration at how the school authorities failed to even notify them that their teenage son had practically missed all lessons since having started attending the school.

It was only when the couple attended Parents’ Day that they were informed for the first time that their son rarely attended lessons and he risked being expelled for failing to meet the 73% attendance rate.

The parents soon learnt that the reason behind their son’s truancy was marijuana. 

“I am not talking about one joint but about substantial quantities for trafficking. I went to the guidance teacher and all she had to say was that ‘these things were normal’.

“When I explained about the quantities she simply said that we had to formally write to the headmaster and then said she had to leave,” the mother said.

Insisting that she had been completely ignored by the school over the drug issue, the mother said she didn’t know what else to do.

“We take him to school, see him through the gate and then pick him up again when school ends. If they can’t keep track of students who should be inside during lessons, how am I to know that my son is safe? That he is not lying somewhere… They say that the drugs could have been bought from outside school. But aren’t these their students too?”

Breaking down into tears, the mother said she could not understand how the school did not keep track or inform them over her son’s absence.

Attendance is taken during each lesson but the school database was not yet updated, the father explained.

“These kids are still minors and the only thing we were told was that the school was too big to trace the students and the system database was not yet in place as they were still building it. They know that this student is not handing in any homework or project and they don’t inform us. He was an exemplary student…” the father said.

After seeking the advice of Sedqa, the couple also decided to reach out to the competent authorities.

Contacted by MaltaToday, head of school Gaetano Calleja said he did not receive any reports of misconduct by a guidance teacher nor did he receive a letter from the parents as advised by the guidance teacher.

“Whenever I receive a report [on drugs] I always inform the police and take all the necessary steps in order to tackle the issue in the most urgent manner. The school takes these matters seriously and even if the abuse happens outside school premises and not during school hours, we always inform the police and as a school we offer all our assistance,” Calleja said.

He said that attendance was taken and recorded during every lesson and students were monitored by “sending for the students themselves and their parents whenever there is the need”.

The school usually issues warning letters, on both attendance and their record of work, which are handed personally to the parents. The system is however still “work in progress”.

“The system is still work in progress and we are working with the school information system to be able to send the attendance report. I hope that by mid-February we will be in a position to send the report,” Calleja said.

He explained that when the school had its own in-house system, an attendance report used to be sent only twice a year. “I am doing my best to send more than two during a year but when I took over the headship of the school in September I found out that there was no planning at all by the previous head regarding the e1 system and I had to start from scratch.”

Allegations of drug use and drug trafficking at the Higher Secondary are not new. MaltaToday is informed that the Naxxar police station on several occasions received such reports but investigations rarely resulted in anything tangible. 

Police Commissioner Michael Cassar told MaltaToday that the police force was “committed to combat the use of substances and drug trafficking in places and where young people meet and surrounding areas”.