DRUGS IN SCHOOLS

Guidelines Should Help To Deal With Problem

Drug-taking is, fortunately, rare in our schools, as are supplying or
possessing drugs. As the new draft guidelines for teachers and others
involved in managing drug misuse in schools point out, most pupils will go
through their primary and secondary education without being involved in
drugs. And many schools themselves will remain untainted by the scourge of
drugs. But two high-profile incidents last year prompted Ministers to begin
a process that resulted in the new proposed guidelines. The incidents were
all the more shocking because they took place in primary schools. In one an
11-year-old boy unwittingly took heroin into school in his bag and in the
other a seven-year-old took the same drug from his home and handed it to a
teacher to prevent his mother causing herself further harm.

They were isolated incidents and showed in a real sense that school
procedures for dealing with drugs could work, since in the one case the
heroin was detected and the incident properly handled, while in the other
the pupil had enough confidence and trust in his teacher to make his cry
for help. But they showed how insidious drugs had become, permeating the
one area outside the home where children should feel secure and out of
harm's way. Most schools have effective procedures for dealing with
drug-related incidents but these two cases showed that they and other
agencies needed all the help they could get. Studies suggest that
drug-taking can begin as young as age 12, and that a significant proportion
of 16-year-olds take cannabis. Secondary schools are therefore much more
exposed and vulnerable to the problem but the great majority do their best
to contain it. The draft guidelines should also help them deal with a
growing problem. It is as well, though, that they are out for consultation
because teachers will need reassurance in several areas. The nebulous, but
potentially dangerous, guidance that staff "may" need to stop the supply of
drugs on or near a school needs to be clarified and tightened up to give
teachers the protection they merit. Those who supply drugs tend to be
streetwise, to say the least, and this is one area where teachers' duties
and obligations will need to be well-defined.

The guidelines should result in the various agencies working together more
effectively. Schools also do their bit in drug education but that is being
looked at separately. Teachers have to react quickly and well when drugs
are found in school, and most do. But we should not expect too much of them
in the overall anti-drugs strategy. It is conservatively estimated that
roughly one person in five who seeks help with his or her drug problem
lives with dependent children. It should come as less of a surprise, then,
that drugs find their way into school, by whatever means and for whatever
purpose. The home is where the real work needs to be done.