SCHOOL PUSH FOR MORE SPOT TESTS

More than 30 Anglican schools will be encouraged to follow the lead of St
Andrew's Cathedral School if the proposed random drug-testing experiment is
successful.

An advocate of the procedure, the head of the Anglican Education Commission,
Dr Lindsay Stoddart, said Sydney Anglican school principals were considering
the school a model.

He has written to the Archbishop of Sydney, the Most Rev Harry Goodhew,
asking him to discuss drug testing with all Anglican secondary school
principals at a coming meeting. He has also put it on the agenda for his
meeting with heads of junior schools later this year.

He said the church had to be realistic about the fact that marijuana has
been a problem in a number of schools. There are 32 Anglican schools in the
Sydney diocese, and 48 in NSW.

Earlier this week, the principal of St Andrew's Cathedral School, Mr Phillip
Heath, said he planned to introduce random testing of students who had been
caught with drugs, had admitted to a problem and had the support of their
parents to stay at the school, instead of expelling them.

The head of the Anglican Schools Corporation, Dr Laurie Scandrett, also
supports the scheme. "It is good to be proactive," he said. "Drug use and
supply of drugs occurs in schools at different times. No-one is immune or
could say 'it doesn't happen in this school'."

Dr Scandrett said expulsion should be reserved for the most serious
offences. "You can get basically good kids getting expelled for smoking
dope," he said. "Identifying the problem and dealing with it is better than
an isolated approach."

The principal of The King's School, Parramatta, Dr Timothy Hawkes, who
already conducts tests on students considered at risk, said a system of
random testing was an effective, protective and reassuring measure.

"Any headmaster of a secondary school who says there are no drugs at his
school is being unrealistic," Dr Hawkes said. "It's endemic, not because
it's a school problem, but because it's a society problem."

The State Opposition Leader, Mrs Chikarovski, whose daughter attends St
Andrew's, said she supported the tests.