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By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
A secondary school in Mid Canterbury is trialling sensors in a bid to smoke out vapers in the loos.
Mount Hutt College Methven principal Jack Saxon said the school is trialling a vape sensor in one of its toilet blocks.
The sensor, placed inside … View moreBy local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
A secondary school in Mid Canterbury is trialling sensors in a bid to smoke out vapers in the loos.
Mount Hutt College Methven principal Jack Saxon said the school is trialling a vape sensor in one of its toilet blocks.
The sensor, placed inside the toilet block, triggers a camera at the hallway access to the toilet.
It allowed the school to identify students who may need support with vape cessation programmes, Saxon said.
“We don't have a significant issue with vaping in our school, which stands in stark contrast to our inner-city cousins, but we are trying to stay ahead of the game around this.
“Bullying in toilets has not been identified as a significant issue in student wellbeing surveys so at this stage the camera trial is targeting vaping at school.”
The trial was tabled with the school's Board of Trustees before going ahead and the results of the trial will go back to the board to determine if the sensors are rolled out across the campus, Saxon said.
The growing youth vaping epidemic has left schools around the country grappling with ways to manage it.
Earlier this year, Rangiora High School principal Bruce Kearney said vaping had led to anti-social gatherings around bathrooms and the school was determined to stamp it out by introducing cameras and sensors across the school.
Other schools have been calling the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) asking about their options for using Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in toilet blocks to deter negative behaviour such as vaping and bullying.
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said that bathrooms are highly sensitive zones for privacy and there are some clear points that schools need to consider first.
“Everyone, regardless of their age, has privacy rights,” he said.
Schools need to be open with their communities about using CCTV and have clear signage and notices of it, and focus cameras away from intimate activity.
Schools can't use audio recordings to pick up conversations without additional privacy assessments, he said.
Ashburton Intermediate principal, Brent Gray, said CCTV in or around the school's bathrooms was not something they are considering.
Ashburton College principal Ross Preece said the school’s new classroom blocks, as part of its $60m rebuild, will be fitted with cameras outside of toilet blocks.
“We are not looking at vape sensors but it is something the radar,” Preece said.
Every secondary school is dealing with the rise of vaping Preece said.
He said health authorities needed to be doing more to limit youth vaping, rather than schools installing preventative measures.
Statistics show a high number of students who have never smoked cigarettes are being introduced to nicotine, the highly addictive substance found in tobacco, via vaping.
The annual ASH Year 10 (15 and 16-year-olds) survey showed 39% of students in Canterbury reported ever vaping in 2022, and 41% in South Canterbury.
Vaping is not just an issue for secondary schools.
Rakaia School principal Mark Ellis said there were undoubtedly children giving vaping a go.
“I’m not seeing vapes often, once a year, maybe. About three times since it became a fad over the last three or four years ago.
“And some will be trying it on the weekends, inspired by their big brothers and sisters.”
In his 17 years teaching primary he had only experienced one incident of cigarettes in school.
Vaping is one of those “attractive things they see other people doing and want to try”, Ellis said.
Knowing how to deal with it at school is a bit of a grey area, he said.
“As school principal, I’ll deal with that with the tools that I have. If that means I have to stand a child down, I will.”
Sir Edmund Hillary was quoted with saying: "I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it"
This statement best applies to some incredible Canterbury village residents who walked the Godley Head Track on a chilly Christchurch … View moreSir Edmund Hillary was quoted with saying: "I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it"
This statement best applies to some incredible Canterbury village residents who walked the Godley Head Track on a chilly Christchurch morning.
The inter-village walk saw residents from Charles Upham and Ngaio Marsh villages walk together up, down and along the peninsula track.
Anthony Wilding residents’ van took a slight detour along Summit Road, so this group of walkers arranged to meet at a point along the track.
Click to read more.
Have you recently observed your broadband expenses creeping up?
According to our recent Neighbourly poll, a staggering 80% of respondents have remained loyal to the same broadband provider for over 5 years, and within that group, a whopping 80% have been with their provider for more than 10 … View moreHave you recently observed your broadband expenses creeping up?
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The Heart Foundation Lottery No. 144 is now open. For as little as one $15 ticket, you will be in the draw to win a brand-new, fully furnished Jennian home worth just over a million dollars in beautiful Whitianga. There are also other great prizes to be won, including overseas holidays, $10,000 … View moreThe Heart Foundation Lottery No. 144 is now open. For as little as one $15 ticket, you will be in the draw to win a brand-new, fully furnished Jennian home worth just over a million dollars in beautiful Whitianga. There are also other great prizes to be won, including overseas holidays, $10,000 cash and a new Toyota hybrid. Proceeds from all tickets help to fund life-saving heart research. Someone will win this incredible home on 30 November. Now that would make it a summer to remember!
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Mid Cantabrians will get to unwrap a $56.75 million Christmas present.
Ashburton’s new library and civic centre building is set to finally open on December 18.
Construction of Te Whare Whakatere began in early 2021 with an original completion date for the end of 2022.
It is now set to … View moreMid Cantabrians will get to unwrap a $56.75 million Christmas present.
Ashburton’s new library and civic centre building is set to finally open on December 18.
Construction of Te Whare Whakatere began in early 2021 with an original completion date for the end of 2022.
It is now set to open a year late, and will end up being over its $56.75 million budget.
The delays in the project were caused by Covid-related strains on the workforce and supply chain.
“We’re really excited to get to this point, because it’s been a tricky build at times with Covid and the shortages of staff and building materials," council chief executive Hamish Riach said.
“But this building is resilient and will serve our community well for 50 years or more, so we’re delighted.”
The public library will close on November 26 and reopen in the new building on December 18.
All other council services will be available during the three-week transition period, with a skeleton staff operating from the old administration building on Baring Square West up until close of business on December 14.
An official opening ceremony is planned for early 2024.
Meanwhile, the demolition of 255 Havelock St is scheduled for the end of October and is expected to take about a month to complete, Riach said.
The building will make way for a public car park to service Te Whare Whakatere.
October 14th is the last day for voting in the General Election 2023. And while there are some policies that are nice to have, there are other issues that are imperative to us. Where do your priorities lie this election? From the options below, choose what is swaying your vote the most.
Type … View moreOctober 14th is the last day for voting in the General Election 2023. And while there are some policies that are nice to have, there are other issues that are imperative to us. Where do your priorities lie this election? From the options below, choose what is swaying your vote the most.
Type 'Not For Print' if you wish your comments to be excluded from the Conversations column of your local paper.
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In the lead-up to the 2023 general election, The Press is profiling Canterbury’s electoral races. Here’s what you need to know about the candidates running to be Rangitata’s MP. (By reporter Keiller MacDuff).
Rangitata is shaping up to be a battle royale, but it will be a big ask for … View moreIn the lead-up to the 2023 general election, The Press is profiling Canterbury’s electoral races. Here’s what you need to know about the candidates running to be Rangitata’s MP. (By reporter Keiller MacDuff).
Rangitata is shaping up to be a battle royale, but it will be a big ask for incumbent Labour minister Jo Luxton to retain the deeply blue electorate, with some commentators already calling it for National party newcomer James Meager.
The electorate stretches along the eastern side of the South Island, from Timaru to the Rakaia River, and inland from the ocean to the Southern Alps. The predominately rural electorate encompasses Mid and South Canterbury, including Ashburton, Methven, Mt Somers, Temuka and Timaru, and skews slightly older - with more than one-quarter of its residents aged over 60, compared to one-fifth nationally.
It briefly existed for two separate parliamentary terms in the late 19th century, then was re-established for the 2008 election, largely replacing Aoraki and parts of the Rakaia electorate.
National’s Jo Goodhew was the first to represent the re-established electorate, holding it from 2008 until she decided not to contest the 2017 election.
National’s Andrew Falloon went on to a strong win, with a margin of 6331 votes, but resigned abruptly in July 2020 after he was alleged to have sent unsolicited images to young women.
Replaced just weeks before the 2020 election by then Environment Canterbury councillor Megan Hands, National lost the seat for the first time since its creation, with Luxton taking 4000 more votes than Hands.
Labour also increased its party vote share by 15 percentage points to 49% over National’s 40%, whose share dropped by more than 21% on 2017.
The electorate’s first meet the candidate event garnered national attention after Prime Minister Chris Hipkins highlighted comments by New Zealand First candidate Rob Ballantyne decrying “Māori elite” and saying “we are the party with the cultural mandate and the courage to cut out your disease and bury you permanently”.
Ballantyne has stood behind the comments, while NZ First leader Winston Peters enthusiastically endorsed them as coming “exactly from my speeches”.
A former early childhood teacher and business owner, Hinds-based Luxton first entered Parliament as a list MP in 2017. The grand-niece of iconic Labour Prime Minister Norm Kirk, she is associate minister of education and agriculture and minster of customs.
Consultant, former political adviser and press secretary James Meager (Ngāi Tahu) was selected to take over National’s candidacy in September 2022. The 36-year-old grew up in Timaru and now lives in Ashburton.
He has committed to starting work on a new Ashburton bridge in a National Government’s first term, reducing red tape and cutting tax. Well down the party list at 69, Meager will be relying on the electorate seat to get into Parliament.
There’s no disagreement on the need for the second bridge crossing, with both major parties committing to it.
Former Timaru District councillor, nurse and conservationist Barbara Gilchrist, vying for the Green vote, says her priorities are providing a guaranteed income, free dental care and supporting farmers to transition to sustainable agriculture.
Ballantyne, who runs an importing business (and is 16th on his party’s list), promises to remove “any regulations that are too difficult to comply with”, backs the new Ashburton bridge, and will give landowners and businesses “immunity from future Māori claims”.
ACT’s Rangitata candidate, Elaine Naidu Franz, resigned in August after it emerged she had compared Covid-19 mandates to concentration camps.
The rest of the candidates are Michael Clarkson, running for the unregistered Rock the Vote NZ party - which falls under the umbrella of Brian Tamaki and Sue Grey’s Freedom NZ coalition; Wayne Shearer, running for Liz Gunn’s New Zealand Loyal party; Karl Thomas (New Conservatives) and Dolf Van Amersfoot (New Nation Party).
Traditionally drawing strong voter turnout - 85% in 2020, compared to 82% nationally - Rangitata’s older population is keenly engaged, with over 60s averaging 90% and 91% turnout in 2017 and 2020 respectively.
Rangitata has the fourth-highest share of people identifying as Christian (43%) among the general electorates, and is predominantly European (87%) and Maori (9%), with one in 10 people (9%) identifying as either Asian or Pasifika.
The electorate ranked first in New Zealand for the number of residents working between 50 and 59 hours per week (15%), and families whose income was between $70,000 and $100,000 (23%).
A fifth of the population are labourers, while 16% work in manufacturing – the second-highest shares among electorates.
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