Stumped after receiving calls from pubs and restaurants that their students are involved in under-age drinking, many school managements in Bengaluru decided to keep a check on them. During random checks, some were in for a rude shock on finding premixed alcoholic drinks instead of plain water or fruit juice in water bottles.
Mansoor Ali Khan, board member of Delhi Public Group of Schools, said they frequently check water bottles in all their five schools located in Bengaluru and have found at least 16 instances of children carrying alcohol to school in the past two years.
“We have found that children carry alcohol to school in their water bottles. It is difficult to detect as it is mixed with juice or water and is transparent,” he said.
When they find a student carrying alcohol, they inform the parents and send the children to their in-house counsellor. “We involve the parents so that they too can keep a watch,” he said.
A teacher, who works in a school in east Bengaluru, was in a dilemma when she found a class nine student had got a bottle of beer to school. “He claimed to have got it just to show it to classmates. I did not know how to deal with the situation. Normally, during graduation day or picnics, we check for alcohol, but now we plan to carry out random checks once a month,” she said.
Spreading awareness
Some schools have decided not to confront students and instead try to educate them about the ill-effects of alcohol. Nooraine Fazal, managing trustee and co-founder of Inventure Academy, has roped in a reformed alcoholic to talk about the ill-effects of alcoholism.
C. R. Chandrashekar, psychiatrist, said there is a need for parents to set an example by not drinking in front of their children. “Children are exposed to scenarios of actors consuming alcohol and they see their parents drinking in social gatherings, and pick it up from there. Also, adolescents are influenced by peer pressure and start experimenting,” he said.
