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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: Labour approves random drug tests for pupils
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent The Observer
Sunday 22 Feb 2004 Schoolchildren will be subjected to random drug testing, Tony Blair announced yesterday, under new guidance for headteachers to be published shortly. The move, routine in some American schools, is designed to reassure parents worried about the increasing availability of drugs in the playground. But it raises serious questions over the invasion of pupils' civil liberties: random testing has not been introduced in workplaces because to take samples without consent from an adult constitutes assault. With around a third of 15-year-olds having smoked cannabis, heads could also find themselves rapidly swamped with positive results. Drug testing will not be compulsory for schools, but the Prime Minister said new guidance for headteachers next month will advise on how to start a programme if they wish. 'If heads believe they have a problem in their school then they should be able to do random drug testing,' he told the News of the World. 'Guidance will be given to headteachers next month which is going to give them specifically the power to do random drug testing within their schools.' Heads who want to introduce it will have to gain 'appropriate' consent from either the parents or the pupil, probably depending on the child's age. The move will not require a change in law. Those who test positive are expected to be offered treatment rather than expelled, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'The emphasis will be on helping students, not penalising them.' The announcement is reminiscent of previous headline-grabbing initiatives generated during times of crisis for Blair's administration, such as the threat to march yobs to cashpoints to pay instant fines, which ended in grief for Downing Street. But a survey earlier this year suggested almost two- thirds of British parents would support random testing. Several private schools already use it, including Eton.
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