RANDOM DRUG TESTS AT 100 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

RANDOM drug testing of pupils has been introduced by more than 100 leading independent schools, the Headmasters’ Conference said yesterday.

Heads now assumed that, in line with national statistics, at least 25 per cent of their GCSE pupils had experimented with illegal drugs and about 10 per cent took them regularly.

The number of schools that automatically expelled children for a first offence was now declining, they said.

The Rev Dr John Barrett, head of The Leys School in Cambridge, who led a conference working party on drugs, said: "We are recommending heads to adopt a more flexible approach.

We think the rules should be that any pupil involved in drugs loses the right to be a member of the school community but may remain, subject to random tests."

He was speaking after the conference in Jersey had been told by Trevor Grice, an international expert on the effects of drugs, that the jury on marijuana was back and their verdict was "guilty".

(Ed. note: "An international expert on the effects of drugs" says that a plant is "guilty?" What follows is ludicrous. Remember he is speaking to people who are responsible for the education of children.)

"In the same way as sunburn doesn’t disappear when the sun goes down, so 50 per cent of the effect of smoking dope over the weekend is still there between four and six days later.
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Cannabis Quote: How "Drug Education" Really Works

The second thing to go is the drug-taker’s ability to think about the future which is followed by disrespect for authority, lying, secret phone calls and stealing from their parents."
(Ed. note: Or perhaps the "disrespect for authority" is the result of the authority lying to them.)

Some heads disagreed with the flexible approach that the conference was recommending. Ian Templeton, head of Glenalmond, near Perth, said: "Our policy is one offence and you’re out. That’s it."

So we expel anyone we catch. We also use random testing if pupils’ behaviour or academic performance leads us to suspect that they may be taking drugs.

It’s proved to be very effective. We used to have quite a lot of people smoking cannabis; now there are almost none."
(Ed. note: Notice that cannabis is the only drug that they mention. They have succeeded in eliminating the least dangerous drug and think that this is a success.)

However Mark Pyper, head of Gordonstoun, where Princes Philip, Charles, Andrew and Edward were pupils, said drugs were so freely available that taking them was equivalent to smoking cigarettes in the Sixties. "We use random testing after a first offence."