Teachers unhappy over drug-screening plans (From Gazette Series)

Teachers unhappy over drug-screening plans

GOVERNMENT proposals for the random drug testing of secondary school pupils have been given a lukewarm reception by three headteachers.

Rednock's John Pritchard, Vale of Berkeley College's Michael Hardwick and Andrew Harris. from Katharine Lady Berkeley's. have all cast doubt on the feasibility of such testing.

Mr Pritchard said: "I suspect that this proposal is one of those things that the government has decided is a good idea before it has been researched properly."

Mr Hardwick also talked down the idea, saying: "I do not think that it is the place of the school or its staff to test pupils for drugs."

The idea of random testing was completely rejected by Mr Harris, who said: "We would not want random testing. To carry out a test we would need some kind of justification for it to be appropriate."

However, all three would welcome any positive work to steer children away from the dangers of drug use.

Tony Blair's call for pupils to give urine samples and for sniffer dogs to patrol schools has caused unrest among parents and teachers, even at this early stage.

Mr Pritchard explained that he thought that the process of carrying out the tests would be extremely complicated.

He said: "The complexity of the required measures would be enormous. Students would have to produce a sample in completely secure conditions so that it remained pure.

"The toilet would have to be secure from contamination and copies of the sample would be required by both the student and their parents.

"I think it is very unrealistic to expect school staff to carry all this out, but if we were in partnership with the police or drug agencies then perhaps it would be workable."

At Katharine Lady Berkeley's Mr Harris suggested that drug-testing could be implemented only in cases where there was evidence to suggest that it would be worth testing a particular pupil.

He said: "If we had a pupil arriving in school day after day, looking like they were under the influence of drugs, then perhaps it would be appropriate.

"If the student was putting themselves and others at risk, then we would obviously want them to receive support."

However, Mr Harris is entirely happy about his current policy about drugs in the school.

He added: "I am happy with what we have at the moment and I think parents always support or at least accept what we do."

Mr Pritchard also emphasised his confidence in the present drugs policy at Rednock, saying: "Our policy is clear. All the children know they will be excluded if they bring drugs into school."

At Vale of Berkeley Mr Hardwick is equally happy with the work that his school is already doing in respect of drugs education.

He said: "As a school we use the local police as part of our Health Education Program. They have input into the drug awareness aspects of our PSE lessons and we co-operate fully with them and keep them informed of any drugs issues which may arise in and out of school.

"Drugs is an issue which affects all members of the community and we will continue to work in partnership with parents on the issue."