PUPILS FACE RANDOM DRUGS TESTS

Two third-form girls suspended from Thames High School for smoking
cannabis have been allowed back to class after agreeing to face
random drug tests.

The 13-year-olds were stood down last month after they were caught
smoking the drug in the school toilets by senior students on the last
day of term.

They are back on the condition they have random urine drug tests for
the next 10 weeks, with their parents having agreed to foot the bill
for the visits to the doctor's surgery.

Principal Garry Willacy said: "Cannabis has a terrible effect on
learning and our board of trustees will just not tolerate the use of
it by students."

Mr Willacy would not name the students for privacy reasons but said
their families fully supported the move.

To pass the tests and remain at the school, the girls will have to
stop smoking cannabis altogether - during or after school. They could
be asked to leave the school at any time to go to the doctor to give
a urine sample. "This is helping students change inappropriate
behaviour, which at the end of the day is part of what education is
all about," Mr Willacy said.

"The girls know that if they get caught with the drug in their system
again it will be very difficult to get back into the school."

The girls got the drug from a fellow third-former, who has had his
suspension extended by a month and will have to complete a drug and
alcohol rehabilitation programme before he is allowed back. He will
face random tests as well.

The school has used random tests before. Mr Willacy said senior
students had left school because they felt they would not be able to
pass the tests and keep within the rules laid down by the board of
trustees.

He said the board was considering blood tests instead of urine tests.
Urine tests showed only whether the drug was present, but blood tests
could indicate that the level of drugs in the body was falling.

Whakatane's Trident High School was one of the first schools to
introduce drug tests, in 1997, and a number of schools have used them
since then.

Most demand urine samples although a few ask for blood samples.

Queenstown's Wakatipu High School has had a policy similar to the one
adopted in Thames for the past four years, but principal Kevin
Orlowski said the school had never had to use it.

"It has definitely worked for us here," he said yesterday.

"It is obviously a great deterrent."

School Trustees Association president Chris France said the body had
applauded the policy of random drug tests adopted by Thames High
School and others.

The association has circulated a petition against cannabis
decriminalisation to all school boards of trustees.

"Schools have got to watch these kids who abuse drugs like hawks," he said.

"This is all about protecting children, the users and those around them.

"Boards of trustees have to make these tough decisions; the Education
Ministry and the Government won't, that's for sure."