SCHOOLS SUSPEND 20,000 PUPILS FOR DRUGS AND DRINK

Up to 20,000 pupils are suspended from school each year for misuse of
illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco, according to evidence that will be
presented to headteachers today by Keith Hellawell, coordinator of the
government's campaign against drugs.

He will publish the results of research into drug-related incidents in 1,100
schools in England that was commissioned by Scoda, the Standing Conference
on Drug Abuse.

These schools said they had temporarily excluded 1,432 pupils and
permanently expelled 378 for drug-related reasons between September 1996 and
June 1998.

The study, by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University, did not
distinguish between legal drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol, and illegal
substances.

Roger Howard, the Scoda chief executive, said the schools were a
representative sample of independent, grant-maintained, church and local
authority schools. The figures suggested that nationally between 10,000 and
20,000 pupils are suspended for drug offences each year and that the number
might be higher because some schools may have under-recorded incidents to
protect their reputation.

"We are concerned that schools may be resorting to suspending or expelling
youngsters immediately when a drug incident occurs, instead of taking
different forms of action that might be more appropriate," he said.

"There is growing evidence that pupils who are not in school are much more
likely to come into contact with illegal drugs, and their use of both legal
and illegal drugs is much higher than for young people in school. It is in
the interests of society as a whole to keep young people in the education
system."

Mr Hellawell and representatives of Scoda will present the findings today to
the annual conference of the Secondary Heads Association in Brighton.

A draft guidance note says ministers would not normally expect a head to
permanently exclude a pupil for a one-off or first offence, although
permanent exclusion may be an appropriate way to remove a pupil 'who has
come to the end of a long line of sanctions and has not learned from past
mistakes'.

The final version of this guidance will be published shortly and will come
into force in September.