Published: Thursday, 28th September, 2006 10:47
School booze claims
By Rachel Lamb
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GANGS of school children are using their lunch hour to guzzle alcohol according to long-suffering residents living near a high school.
The worried homeowners claim some Hermitage Academy pupils are buying alcohol during their lunch break and leaving a secluded footpath close to the school littered with food containers and empty cider bottles.
Hermitage Academy has denied the claims.
However, neighbours say their lives are being made a misery by the problem.
Residents near the school came to the Advertiser about the issue after a series of incidents since the school term restarted last month.
They were happy to talk about their experiences but did not want to be named.
One woman called the police after finding a group of teenagers drinking in her driveway.
She said: `I’m really shocked. Someone local must be selling alcohol to these kids at lunch time.
`They are just fourteen and fifteen years old but I’ve caught groups of them drinking at lunch time on about four occasions since the school went back.
`They sit out there, eating their chips and drinking their cider, then throwing it all down my driveway.
`On one day there must have been about six of them. When the dog started barking they all scarpered back to school.
`They left three, two-litre bottles of cider behind.
`It’s bad enough cleaning up their mess, but drinking at lunchtime? It’s horrendous. I’m really at my wit's end.
`I spoke to the headmaster. He said he couldn't take the law into his own hands.`
Paths and hedges near Beechgrove Place are bristling with larger cans, whisky and cider bottles, food containers and used condom wrappers.
One resident feared the mess would encourage rats.
He said: `It’s been pretty bad this week, I’ve been picking things up every day. There is a bin just feet away from where they are dumping their rubbish.
`The railway arch nearby is crawling with rats. I have a five-year-old grandson and I worry that he might get bitten and infected by one of them.
`I spoke to the teenagers once about it and I couldn’t have been more civil but the abuse I got just isn’t acceptable. Weans will be weans, but it’s the underage drinking that worries me and the school don’t want to know about it.`
A spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute Council said that following a visit to the footpath, the head teacher had confirmed there was no evidence of pupils drinking in the area or being under the influence of drink at the school.
She added: `Although there was some litter in the area, it was not disproportionate from what might be expected.
`Some of this litter was as a result of the bins being full.
`The school will continue to address the litter problem and will contact the community police regarding allegations of shops selling alcohol to school pupils.`
Strathclyde Police confirmed that they had been called out to a property near the school on Thursday and were investigating reports of under-age drinking in the area.
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