Drug abuse scandal rocks Dominican Convent , 8 students expelled

Harare- RAMPANT drug abuse has rocked Dominican Convent Girls High School leading to the expulsion of 8 students this week, ” Express Mail Zim can report.

The students in question were caught red handed at a school retreat at Troutbeck in Nyanga.

“The disciplinary committee exercised all principles of procedural fairness and found the girls guilty of violating the school’s s drug policy.

” My heart aches for these girls and their parents but my duty of care is to ensure that the school environment is ,as far as practicable, safe and free from all these risks.

“Possession or usage and supplying a restricted substance including vaping is not acceptable..
“Investigations are ongoing and we will not hesitate to weed out any more culprits to sanitize the school space,” wrote the school head Sister Kudzai Mutsure in a statement released Thursday.

Investigations by Express Mail Zim established that this ‘catch’ was only the tip of the iceberg and school authorities were aware of this practice for a long time but withheld the information to parents .

Some rogue staff members operated a well orchestrated syndicate to supply the drugs in connivance with a known supplier from a local restaurant (name withheld) where the girls frequent during exit weekends.

” This cancer is not anything new to the authorities.
“It’s an open secret that is why concerned members within management recommended the use of sniffer dogs for random checks but parents were not advised n all these developments,” said our inside source.

Popular drugs abused by these students include marijuana, crystal meth,vape and cocaine.

Most of these drugs do not come cheap forcing the girls to get into romantic relationships of convenience with young proffesionals and sugar daddies to fund the habit.

“On exit weekends these girls are picked up for so called movie dates or hang outs at places like Queen of Heart and they are dropped right in time for mummy to pick them up,” said another source.

Express Mail Zim can authoratatively reveal that the popular spots where these girls buy their ‘merchandise’ is Sam Levy’s village and uptown restaurants (names withheld).

The biggest distributor is at Sam Levy’s Village and the runners then go around elite high schools where they have inside tradesman mostly youthful teachers and janitors.

Some of the students are affected by their parents’ habits.

“Some of these habits are nurtured at home by parents’ behaviour and this has a huge effect on the children’s behavioural metamorphosis with radical change from good girl to bad girl.
“Taking drugs becomes a cool thing to do and the abnormal becomes normal.
“Our society has become so tight that behavourial patterns become infectious forcing dorm mates to adopt the same behaviour,” said Rita Chinhengo ,a sociology student at a local university.

It could not be immediately ascertained whether the expelled students were handed over to the police for possession and use of prohibited drugs.

Dominican Convent High Schoo is a private Catholic day school for girls and is one of the oldest schools in Zimbabwe.
It was founded in 1892 by Mother Patrick Cosgrave, an Irish nun, with 10 pupils.

It has produced several high profile and celebrated alumni including musician Pauline Gundidza and former First Daughter Bona Mugabe.