The rector of Saint Patrick's College says students buy energy drinks in the morning before school. Photo: Mauro Matacchione
A Wellington school is banning highly caffeinated energy drinks from next term, after a spike in the number of students going to the sick bay after drinking them.
A post on the Saint Patrick's College website said the drinks are high in sugar and caffeine and are not recommended as part of healthy diet.
It also said teenagers can be more sensitive to the harmful effects of caffeine in energy drinks, including irritability and restlessness.
Rector Mike Savali told Checkpoint they want the students to put their health first.
"It's just not part of the healthy diet. But more importantly, we need them to learn in the classroom when their mind and energy are fully functional, especially in the mornings, and that's where part of the issue is."
He said students would buy energy drinks at the supermarket down the road, in the morning before school.
There had also been an increase in the number of boys visiting the schools sick bay, feeling nauseous and unwell.
"Being irritable or restlessness. There could also be an increase in heart rates similar with disturbed sleep patterns because they're drinking it at night."
Energy from the caffeine in the drinks only lasted for a short period before dropping again, he said.
"You're also trying to burn off energy trying to let alone concentrate and bring energies levels back up again. There's repercussions with that, we're just asking the boys to just think about what they drink and think about their own diets."
Savali said students were drinking the energy drinks before and after they had breakfast, and then arriving at school.
"It's also unhealthy food that they're eating. We are concerned they're either having an unhealthy breakfast or no breakfast at all. If they're not eating something beforehand and then coming to school, they're having to drink one of the energy drinks or [have] unhealthy food."
St Patrick's College in Wellington. Photo: Google Maps
Controlling what happened outside the grounds was hard to police, but the school aimed to educate the students when they were on site, he said.
"It's all about educating the boys, also educating our whanau in terms of the decisions they make in terms of, what they put eat and drink and put into their bodies, but also a lot of our students, they play a lot of sport or they're part of the cultural group, they need that energy to sustain across the day."
Students were completely banned from bringing drinks on site, he said.
"We can't police it off of our school grounds, hence the reason why we put it between 8:30 and 3:30. Even if they're just by the grounds, we could ask them, you need to put it away or we'll have to remove it, whether its opened or unopened."
He said it will take time to change the behaviour, but it was a right move for the school.
"It would take some time, but if we think about what we did two years ago when we did a phone ban that took a bit of time, probably a term and we need to monitor that, but also [we] need to have our staff on board and role model that. So, it would take some time."
It would be helpful if other supermarkets voluntarily implemented a minimum age of sale for energy drinks, he said.
"I also understand that they're trying to make some sales as well. But I think having you know, no sale for towards under sixteens would be really helpful."
He said there had been mixed reactions through the school about the ban.
"Others are thinking, 'well, really, how are you going to do this?' But in all honesty, it is about thinking about what goes into their bodies as part of their learning, but also in culture and or sport, what a lot of our boys are involved in.
"We want them to be fully functional, to be able to compete or to be competitive through training and so forth."
He said the school did not sell energy drinks or fizzy drinks from its school canteen.
"We sell water, we sell juice, and we sell flavoured milk. I know flavoured milks also got high contents of sugar, but those are the three things that we sell here. We certainly discourage fizzy drinks, but we haven't put a ban on it, we don't sell fizzy [drinks] though."
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