Categories: NewsHealth & Safety

St Stephen’s seven: drug overdose at elite Qld school

<h2>According to news&period;com&period;au&comma; students at a Gold Coast private school&comma; St Stephen’s College took repeated doses of a &OpenCurlyQuote;designer drug’&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;news&period;com&period;au&sol;lifestyle&sol;health&sol;health-problems&sol;police-seize-mobile-phones-in-investigation-into-school-overdose&sol;news-story&sol;ace12f1eadfe40bd2bcce3c471a4d05f">drug may have been Phenibut<&sol;a>&comma; an illegal anti-anxiety medication which causes nausea&comma; vomiting&comma; kidney failure&comma; delirium and unconsciousness”&comma; the report read&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The binge &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;began before nine o’clock in the morning when the year ten boys began ingesting up to 7g of powdered drugs”&period; Reports indicate the full effects were not evident until the middle of the day&period; Some witnesses reported the boys &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;vomiting out of their noses” with attending police confirming the boys had taken some &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;very dangerous drugs”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gold Coast University Hospital issued a brief statement on Friday afternoon&comma; but will release further details during the coming week&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It can be revealed that police believe the students ingested varying quantities of the drug in a number of doses over several hours&comma;” a <em>Gold Coast Bulletin<&sol;em> report noted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The principal published <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;facebook&period;com&sol;Saint-Stephens-College-151503464885702&sol;&quest;hc&lowbar;ref&equals;ARTDAHDUuN3M5U8LwGeHW2F8bpcOu&lowbar;&lowbar;fNBjXHbAPM-PcUt3inCdRaEu6feSvmfSQkfo&amp&semi;fref&equals;nf">a public post on the school’s Facebook<&sol;a> page thanking the community for their support and saying that he had visited the boys in hospital and was feeling better after seeing them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He indicated the boys were doing better and receiving appropriate care&period; The school was acknowledged by the emergency services for its appropriate and speedy response&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said the police were working with the school and community and police were awaiting a toxicology report&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In the wake of the tragedy&comma; students’ mobile phones were seized and crime scenes established as detectives investigate whether the affected students bought the drugs online&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said&comma; the Queensland Police are working diligently&comma; with the support of our school&comma; to investigate what happened and to answer the many questions the event has raised&period; They need time to complete their inquiries”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Students and staff have been offered counselling and these services are available to any parent who believes they would also benefit from such support&comma;” he advised&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to a Saturday report on <em>The Courier Mail<&sol;em>&comma; one boy remained in hospital in intensive care on Saturday evening with the rest at home with their parents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Australian Border Force and the state <strong>drug<&sol;strong> squad are among the agencies investigating the details surrounding the event&comma; including the likely source of the drugs supplied to the boys&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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Suzy Barry

Suzy Barry is a freelance education writer and the former editor of School News, Australia.

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