Sitting the drugs test - will parents and students stand for it?

Random drug testing is standard procedure in schools in the US, and some Irish schools test pupils for drugs, but with many parents and civil liberties groups opposed to drug testing, will it take off here?

The drug test is a common feature of school life in the US and this year, the Abbey School in Kent in England became the first state school in the UK to administer random drug testing of students. Ten students are chosen at random each week to give mouth swabs which are then sent to a laboratory for examination. The move has been broadly welcomed at political level, while civil liberties groups and other charities are strongly opposed.

This issue is a salient one for Irish schools. The 1998 Education Act charges each school with authoring its own drugs policy and many schools are in the middle of that process right now. There are no strict guidelines from the Department of Education and Science: schools are free to formulate drugs policies according to their needs. As a result, drug policies in Irish schools vary from libertarian to interventionist, depending on where you choose to send your child.

St Andrew's College in Booterstown, Co Dublin has long championed the interventionist approach. Principal Arthur Godsil makes no apology for his school's use of drug testing where drug abuse is suspected.

"We have used drug testing selectively in St Andrew's for some time now," says Godsil. "Where it has been used, it has worked very well. We need to protect the vulnerable and we can't sit back and allow drug use to happen. Any form of drug use diminishes the atmosphere of the school."

In St Andrew's, if a student is known to have taken drugs inside or outside the school, he or she is consulted on the matter and asked, in consultation with parents, to take a test. "It's not mandatory - the student is invited to take the test in order to enact a support programme in the event that the test is positive," Godsil explains. "No sanctions are taken at this point. Students are offered the opportunity to continue at the school if they test negative in future."

Godsil does not regard the policy at St Andrew's as excessive. "Drug testing is common practice in many spheres. Whether the students' drug-taking is happening inside or outside the school, we cannot sit back at say that this has nothing to do with us. Schools are not islands."

Sutton Park School in north Co Dublin is the only other Irish school that administers drug tests as a matter of policy. Other Irish schools have been known to suggest drug testing to parents where drug use is suspected. Now that home drug-testing kits are easily sourced, schools and parents are in a position to take matters into their own hands.

Drug testing is not recommended by the Department of Education and Science, a fact which last March prompted Labour's Mary Upton to challenge the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, on the administration of drug tests by schools such as St Andrew's and Sutton Park. Despite calls from the National Association for Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) for a clear departmental stance on the issue, the Minister is holding her counsel.

Internationally, drug testing in schools is not favoured. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) recommends a softly-softly approach to drug-taking among students, emphasising the need for an understanding and sympathetic response. In its guide for schools, Life Skills-Based Education for Drug Prevention: Training Manual, Unesco suggests that "a composed reaction on your part helps to create a similar reaction from the student with whom you wish to discuss the events. Panic tends to impede discussion, especially if the focus is intensely and singularly on the drug use behaviour rather than the total picture surrounding it."

Last month the Council of Europe held a conference entitled Drug Prevention and Presentation and Drug Testing in Schools in Strasbourg, where delegates were warned by a number of stakeholders that drug testing may be expensive and ineffective at best. The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies (Encod) pointed out that costly drug testing policies can generate more heat than light in many cases.

"Students can outsmart the drug test," delegates heard. "Introduction of such tests is leading to growth of the anti-test market. Students who fear being caught by a drug test may find ways to cheat the test, often by purchasing products on the internet." A Google search for "passing a drug test" throws back over 80,400 links to websites giving information on how to pass drug test or selling drug-free replacement urine, herbal detoxifiers, hair follicle shampoo, and other products designed to yield a negative result.

Michael Parsons, outgoing president of the NAPD, does not believe that drug testing will prove popular in Irish schools. "In my experience, most schools have taken the view that drug testing is more trouble than it is worth," says Parsons. "Drug testing is an expensive process and that's a big issue for non-fee paying schools."

Even if Irish schools did decide the investment was worth it, they would come up against stiff opposition to random drug testing from civil liberties groups and from the studnt lobby.

"We have a very strong policy on mandatory drug testing," says Oisín O'Reilly, president of the Union of Secondary Students. "If mandatory drug testing is introduced in Ireland, we will call a national strike. There have been attempts to introduce such a policy in some schools, but we have always made our position very clear. There is no room for leeway in this issue."

The current president of the NAPD, Clive Byrne, questions the wisdom of schools such as Sutton Park and St Andrew's making their positions so public. "Any school reserves the right to ask parents to administer a drug test if they suspect that a student is using. Then, if the test is positive, schools can deal with the situation accordingly. Every case is different, and adopting general policy is risky. Schools that publicly announce their positions are making themselves hostages to fortune."

Byrne is principal of St Mary's College in Rathmines, Dublin and while he says his school has no fixed position on drug testing, he wouldn't announce it publicly if they had. "Schools like St Andrew's might see the publicisation of drug testing and fingerprinting as good for the school. Personally, I would just share the information with parents as appropriate. I don't believe that fixed policies like these affect use. In my experience, students of St Andrew's or Sutton Park are no less likely to take drugs than any other student."

[ www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index_14928.html ]

Student Drug Testing: What's happening

IRELAND

Last February Labour's Dr Mary Upton asked the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, for her views on the ongoing drug testing of pupils in secondary schools. Minister Hanafin stated that guidelines for developing a substance abuse policy for schools had been drawn up under Action 43 of the National Drugs Strategy and did not include advice schools to undertake drug testing of pupils.

"I do not consider that the policy in this regard should be changed as there is no conclusive evidence that drug testing reduces the incidence of drug misuse among young people," the Minister said.

UK

In February 2004 Prime Minister Tony Blair, in an interview with the News of the World, announced his support for random drug testing of pupils in UK schools. The Abbey school in Kent has become the first UK school to introduce random drug testing of pupils.

US

In January 2002, following a US Supreme Court ruling that random drug testing was not in contravention of the Fourth Amendment of the US constitution, President George Bush signed into US law the No Child Left Behind Act, authorising the use of federal funds for school-based random drug testing. €21.3 million has been allocated for the programme.

CZECH REPUBLIC

There is no random drug testing, but a school may demand drug testing under specific circumstances defined by law.

LITHUANIA

In 2002 the government approved drug testing in regular health checks or in special cases in agreement with parents and students.

FINLAND

In 2000, the parliamentary deputy ombudsman stated that drug tests can only be conducted by healthcare professional, and that students testing positive should receive treatment.

SWEDEN

The Government Drug Commission, in its 2000 report, discouraged any widening of the legal scope for compulsory drug testing of children under 15, nor did it find it appropriate for such measures to be entrusted to school staff or to any other professional categories but the police. In 2002, the justice ombudsman decided that a medical doctor can drug test minors, if the parents give consent.

NORWAY

A social and health directorate circular has stated that there is no legal basis for enforced drug testing and no legal basis for sanctions on a positive result.

Source: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction