|
Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
|
|
UK: Independent sector first to see dangers
Glen Owen, Education Correspondent The Times
Tuesday 24 Feb 2004 HEADMASTERS in the independent sector introduced random testing in the 1990s after several drugs scandals. It was a compromise: schools that had pledged to expel anyone dabbling with drugs realised that they could be left with empty classrooms. Sevenoaks School in Kent pioneered the move in 1995 after uncovering a ten-pupil cannabis ring. The boy who had sold the drugs was expelled; the remaining nine were suspended and told that when they returned they would be subject to urine-testing at any point in the school day. The tactic has been emulated by three quarters of boarding schools, including Eton, Marlborough and Winchester. In most cases, pupils are tested only if they have been previously found to have used drugs - not as a pre-emptive measure - and only if their parents agree that the move is preferable to expulsion. A previous offender who records a positive result is usually removed from the school. About half the schools use professional laboratories, such as the ones in local hospitals, the rest carrying out the tests on site. A number of companies offer test-kits to schools. Eton went one step further in December, when Tony Little, the Head Master, announced that it would be coupling its testing programme with drug rehabilitation schemes. 'In the past year we have lost a couple of boys to drugs,'he said. 'I have no doubt that drugs are a significant temptation to our pupils. We are revising our policy so that pupils of concern can attend counselling.'
After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.
|
This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.
Feel free to link to this page!