Pubdate: Tue, 04 Jan 2005
Source: Western Mail (UK)
Copyright: Trinity Mirror Plc 2005
Contact:  http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2598
Author: Tryst Williams, Western Mail
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

TEACHERS CRITICISE DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOL

ANTI-DRUGS campaigners and teaching unions in Wales have attacked the 
introduction of random drug testing at a state school.

The scheme will be introduced at The Abbey School in Faversham, Kent, when 
pupils return from their Christmas break.

But Welsh drugs and education experts last night indicated they would not 
want similar schemes brought into Wales' classrooms.

Geraint Davies, secretary of NASUWT Cymru, said, "I think it's a sad day 
for education that we have reached this point where this one school is 
preparing to introduce random tests.

"Such responsibilities shouldn't be the responsibility of the school or 
head teacher but the police.

"They have not been introduced into schools in Wales yet, and I hope they 
will not be."

Peter Walker, headmaster of the 960-pupil Abbey School, yesterday defended 
the introduction of the testing regime, saying previous government attempts 
to prevent people taking drugs were not working.

It is believed to be the first time that a state school in the UK has 
introduced random drug testing.

Under the scheme, 20 names will be drawn at random from a list of pupils - 
some as young as 11 - who said they were willing to be tested.

They will then be tested by specially-trained non-teaching members of staff.

Mr Walker said pupils found to be taking drugs would not necessarily be 
excluded. Their parents would be asked to discuss the situation with staff, 
to determine what action should be taken.

Mr Davies added, "The fact that testing will be undertaken by non-teaching 
staff is a move in the right direction but I still think any such testing 
should remain within the realms of the police. What I'm concerned about is 
that schools, more and more, are being asked to become policing authorities 
when they need to concentrate on teaching and learning."

Gethin Lewis, secretary of NUT Cymru, feared it could lead to allegations 
of sexual abuse being levelled at the staff administering the tests.

"It's a sad indictment of society that a school has considered it necessary 
to go down this unfortunate route," he said.

"We have all heard of a minority of unfortunate abuse stories involving 
pupils and schools, and teaching and non-teaching staff have to be very 
careful to protect themselves against allegations of inappropriate and 
unprofessional conduct.

"We're aware of the situation in Wales that drugs do cause problems in the 
community and I wouldn't want any individual school to go down this route 
without an appropriate strategy from local education authorities or the 
Welsh Assembly Government."

The issue of random drug testing in schools came to the fore last year when 
in a newspaper interview Tony Blair suggested head teachers in England 
could be given powers that would see sniffer dogs brought into classrooms 
and pupils being ordered to give urine samples.

However, as such guidelines would come from the Department for Education 
and Skills and not the Home Office, the new guidelines would not apply in 
Wales unless they were introduced by the National Assembly.

Paul Cannon, of Rhondda Against Illegal Drugs (Raid), believed such a 
scheme would be impractical.

"It's nice to see something proactive being done and it could act as a 
deterrent for some young people," he said.

"In principle it's a good idea but how you would actually implement it in 
reality is something else.

"I'm conscious of the fact that teachers have a huge workload as it is just 
getting children through the curriculum."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth