SCHOOL DRUG TESTING CONFIRMED

Taranaki high schools are drug testing students caught smoking
marijuana.

Three former New Plymouth Boys' High School students expelled for
smoking cannabis at school are receiving regular drug tests through
their new school, Inglewood High School, to ensure they are clean.

Boys' High principal Lyal French-Wright said yesterday the year 12
(form six) boys were caught smoking the drug at the end of June in a
car outside the school during the final week of last term.

"It's a huge disappointment, anything to do with drugs and kids. It
eats away at you every time it happens," Mr French-Wright said.

Taranaki secondary schools usually take on students expelled from
other schools because of drugs, and increasingly drug testing them
first.

The boys' new principal, Lynn Bublitz said the students were allowed
to go to his school on the condition they were proved clean by a drug
test first - a procedure which would continue for an unspecified time.

The students must provide a regular urine sample at Taranaki Base
Hospital.

"It is not normal practice, but it is something that the boys and
their parents suggested. I know of other schools who use drug tests,"
he said.

Taranaki Secondary Schools Principals' Association president and
Spotswood College principal Barry Finch said that while drug testing
was not widespread in Taranaki, some secondary schools were involved
in it. Parents of students caught taking drugs usually gave their
permission because they too wanted to keep their children clean.