PARENTS CONDEMN SCHOOL DRUG TESTS

Public school parents today likened drug testing school students to police
surveillance.

Australian Council of State School Organisations president Ian Morgan said
the peak parents' lobby group would 'absolutely not' support drug testing
in state schools.

In Victoria, private school Melbourne Grammar this week announced it would
regularly give urine tests to students previously caught using drugs, after
another private school Geelong Grammar made a similar announcement in
October.

The Sydney Morning Herald today reported that Sydney's private St Andrew's
Cathedral School was also considering introducing the tests.

Mr Morgan said the introduction of the tests showed how much the private
school system had abandoned the principle of pastoral care.

'We regard this semi-police action of the random drug testing as an
absolute abrogation of the responsibility of schools towards students,' Mr
Morgan told reporters.

Drug taking for most students was a transient activity, he said.

However, schools should provide counselling and support for long-term drug
abusers.

The ACSSO was calling on state and federal ministers meeting in Sydney
today to provide more funding to government schools for additional school
counsellors and welfare support staff.

'That's the only way to go,' Mr Morgan said.

'Government schools, we would hope with adequate resources, would take on
their real pastoral care responsibilities.'

The drug tests were merely a device by private schools to protect their
market image of a safe environment, he said.

In reality, drugs were as a great a problem in the private system as public
schools.

Mr Morgan was speaking ahead of the Ministerial Council on Education,
Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA).

However, one other parent, NSW opposition leader Kerry Chikarovski, came
out in support of the move.

Mrs Chikarovski, whose daughter is a senior student at St Andrew's, said
she supported random drug testing at schools as long as there was a
consultation process with parents.

'More importantly, my daughter came in to me this morning ... and said to
me that as a student of the school she has no difficulty with the policy
either,' she said.

Mrs Chikarovski said the policy had already been in force at a United
States school attended by her daughter last year where it had proved
successful.

'It had the desired effect,' she said.

'Kids knew that they were subject to random drug testing and as a result of
that there was little or no use of drugs in the school.'

Mrs Chikarovski said the tests would be used to help children who were
using drugs rather than punish them.

'This is not about throwing the kids out, this is about identifying
children who may have a problem and helping them deal with it.

'It is a very caring attitude by the school.'