A HARD-hitting drugs awareness day taught pupils at a Rugby secondary school about the dangers of drug use, county lines gangs and knife crime.
Award-winning speaker Paul Hannaford told Year 10 students at Avon Valley School about his real-life experiences of and insights into the consequences of drug addiction.
And courtesy of detection dog Scampy from security service provider ICTS, the pupils got to see first-hand how highly trained canines are used to track down drugs in many different organisations and settings across the UK.
Drug detection dog Scampy also paid a visit.
The school held the awareness day to address drug and substance abuse in the face of local and national campaigns against county lines drug gangs.
It was also in response to recent statistics from the Department for Education which show there were 9,000 drug-related school exclusions given out to students across the country. In the West Midlands, Warwickshire had the second highest number of exclusions, only behind Birmingham.
Head teacher Alison Davies said: “Paul is an excellent speaker who we have worked with for a number of years.
“The students always listen to what he has to say and are shocked by his life story. This goes a long way towards reinforcing the work already completed by the students on this topic.”
