NEWS
EXTRA
Schools drug testing ‘could put more children at risk’
Random drug testing will drive many children into truancy, exclusion and away
from help, says a leading children's charity.
The Children's Society believes it could put children at risk more from drug,
alcohol and solvent misuse as well as up the truancy rates.
In an open letter from the charity's chief executive Bob Reitemeier, he comments: “Randomised
drug testing of children at school will make schools a site of confrontation
and fear for children. Schools have no legal powers to enforce random testing,
but a child who has done nothing wrong, and taken no drugs, may still face school
disciplinary action and possibly exclusion if they choose not to consent to a
test, as they are entitled to do.
“The Government suggests that positive tests could lead to children being
required to undergo treatment before returning to school. Research about current
drug using behaviour would suggest around a third of 15-year-olds are liable
to test positive for cannabis at some point, while very few, as few as two percent
of all children, are likely to be a child in need of treatment for a drug problem.
Treatment is not a panacea and is certainly not designed to meet the needs of
experimental or recreational drug users.
"Treatment services, like those The Children's Society runs for children
and young people, must be able to devote their finite resources to those children
who have drug problems that respond to treatment programmes.
"Cannabis can remain detectable in the blood stream for as long as a month,
while most other illegal drugs disappear within a couple of days. Random testing
in schools could have the perverse effect of driving young people away from experimentation
with a relatively less harmful but highly detectable drug like cannabis, and
actually encourage the use of other drugs like speed, heroin, LSD or ecstasy
which are more risky, but less likely to be detected.
"Just as worryingly children may react by replacing illegal drugs with the
most life-threatening of all substances for children and young people, solvents,
which would not be tested for at all. Dangerous patterns of young people bingeing
on Friday nights, and of mixing drugs with alcohol, will be at risk of escalating
as young people time their social lives and drug consumption to try to ensure
they are free of all traces in time for registration on Monday morning.
"Meanwhile the child who cannot easily stop or plan their use to get round
the testing, the one who out of all pupils may be the child most in need of help,
is the child most likely to simply become another truancy statistic to avoid
testing positive.
“The widespread shock and bemusement of organisations right across the drugs
and children's sectors attest to the fact that this announcement came out of
the blue, with no evidence or professional expertise to support it, and sits
in complete contradiction to the guidance government has recently developed in
partnership with schools and organisations like ours.
"Our responsibility to children is to provide supportive and protective
environments in which they can learn about the risks of drug use, and find support
and help should they experience problems themselves. Only in prisons has a policy
of random drug testing ever previously been thought justifiable. Schools are
not jails, nor should they become sites for more draconian, counterproductive
policing tactics than are currently seen only inside the prison system."
More at www.childrenssociety.org.uk
* What do YOU think? Should random drug testing go ahead in our state schools?
Mail us at info@cfnetwork.co.uk
Pro-life group welcomes US teens' view that chastity is cool
LIFE, the UK’s leading prolife charity, has welcomed a recent report in
the Daily Mail describing the “moral backlash” taking place among America’s
young people.
“It certainly is good news that American teenagers are turning their backs
on promiscuity and embracing abstinence,” says Nuala Scarisbrick, LIFE Trustee. “It
is the only way out of epidemic levels of STIs and soaring teenage pregnancy
and abortion rates.
“Apparently, for millions of US teenagers, chastity is now ‘cool’.
But this happy situation has not happened by accident. It is as a result of programmes
where young people are given back-up and continued adult support to resist pressures
from the media, society and peers to have sex.
“LIFE has been providing just such education for schools for several years.
Our programmes of schools talks, conferences and seminars encourage young people
to value their sexuality and themselves.
“Our Relationships talk, introduced in 2002, has been proving particularly
popular with students. The whole idea is to raise their self-esteem, promote
activities and ambitions appropriate to their age, and help them to place sex
within the context of committed relationships and family.
“The situation in the UK at the moment is getting worse. This is because
only those teens who are sexually active receive help and support, whereas those
who would wish to remain abstinent receive no guidance. LIFE is working to change
this and to promote abstinence as the ‘coolest’ choice for our young
people.’
- For further information on LIFE’s Education Programme please phone 01926 421587 (office hours)
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