Pubdate: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 Source: Hawke's Bay Today (New Zealand) Copyright: 2006 Contact: http://www.hbtoday.co.nz/info/letters/ Website: http://hbtoday.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2947 Author: Lawrence Gullery Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) SCHOOLS URGED TO TEST FOR DRUGS Our elite sportspeople face it and Hawke's Bay students could be next as the pressure goes on to introduce drug testing in secondary schools. The push to establish the policies was initiated by DrugTest NZ, a new national drug and alcohol-testing service based in Hawke's Bay. Its business development manager, Susan Davis, is working with businesses to develop workplace policies that will address drug issues. DrugTest NZ now wants to work with secondary schools in the Bay to develop alcohol policies and the drug-testing kits it promotes as a tool to identify students with drug issues. Mrs Davis has approached Hawke's Bay District Health Board' public health unit health promoter, Sandy Keen, to help develop drug policies for the region's high schools. Mrs Keen showcased the concept to the Hastings District Council's safer community advisory committee last week. The committee has also thrown its support behind the initiative. Mrs Keen told the committee a booklet would be distributed to high schools to help them develop drug policies and promote the introduction of drug-testing. She said while some secondary schools already had drug policies in place, a standard needed to be developed and agreed upon to ensure uniformity. "There are about 20 secondary schools in Hawke's Bay that have drug policies. The rest have no policies or policies that don't work," Mrs Keen told the committee. "Some schools just move the students straight away while others just ignore the problem. "We need a standard policy where the schools have to deal with the problem, and not just move students on to another school," she said. Schools would be encouraged to offer a probationary period for students to seek help if they tested positive for drugs or alcohol. Students would then be retested before disciplinary action, such as suspension or expulsion, occurred. Mrs Keen said implementing the policies would require approval from board of trustee members from each school. High schools would be targeted initially and later, primary and intermediate schools could be included in the project. "Sometimes it's hard to tell schools that there are drug issues but what I am trying to do is raise awareness of young people so they can make better choices down the track," Mrs Keen said. She said Hukarere College, Eskdale, had developed its own drug and alcohol policy which was available for other schools to use as a possible model. "This (policy) is not to get children kicked out of school. It's to get them help - it's early intervention," she said. Mrs Keen said it would probably take up to two years for the policies to be developed. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman