SCHOOLS' HUGE APPRECIATION FOR WORK OF ANTI-DRUGS TEAMS

Patrick Tobin says lack of resources is frustrating efforts to clear streets
of offenders

I am glad that you publicised the main findings of the Headmasters' and
Headmistresses' Conference drugs and alcohol report (21 January). While I
was less happy that you gave similar coverage (22 January) to the behaviour
of ten boys at Stewart's Melville College, Edinburgh. I accept there is a
hidden compliment in such notoriety. Independent schools advertise
themselves as having high standards, and must expect to be measured by such
standards.

The truth, surely, is that society is facing a major threat to the health of
young people, and that it can only be distracting if this is represented in
terms of the misfortunes of individual pupils or schools. In verbally
presenting the HMC report to the media, I emphasised this. Substance abuse
was endemic; boys and girls were becoming involved at ever lower ages. The
huge social costs of drugs and alcohol were mounting.

That said, the raison d'etre, and whole thrust of the HMC report, was that
it was incumbent on schools to formulate strategies for dealing with such
problems. I stressed that we were as much concerned with alcohol abuse as
with illegal drugs. Indeed, the heads of day schools placed alcohol above
drugs as a threat to the well-being of their pupils. I summed up our "basic
message" as follows: "Schools would be most unwise to assume that
out-of-school drinking and drug taking are under control." What was the
answer? We proposed a combination of effective education, genuine
partnership with parents and clear disciplinary guidelines.

It was only too easy for schools to blame parents for being too indulgent
and for parents to lament the peer group with whom their sons or daughters
associated at school. It was essential any policy rested on the foundation
of a good and open partnership between school and homes. Schools should look
closely at the quality and effectiveness of personal and social education
which they provided. I also said school and home needed the law to be
enforced, and this was where the Government must act.

It was in this context that I observed that, when I had to trace the links
through which boys and girls obtained drugs in Edinburgh, or purchased
alcohol in pubs and off-licences, there was no evidence that these links
were likely to be interrupted by the police. Rather, it seemed to me,
14-year-old boys and girls were able to make their purchases unimpeded.

I worried the police were too concerned with finding Mr Big in the drugs
trade, and the small fry were able to make deals with relative impunity. I
observed that the Bath police told me in the early 1980s they were
interested in the big dealers rather than small consumers. I said this
strategy had not stopped Mr Big from becoming bigger and from proliferating.

I now much regret using these words. They were interpreted by certain
sections of the media, your own newspaper included, as a frontal attack on
the police in general, and Edinburgh police in particular. The HMC report
contained no criticism of the police. Rather, we reported: "Most schools
have found the police sympathetic, co-operative and interested. None has
found them over-zealous or hostile." In our recommendations, we emphasised
the importance of liaison with police and drugs teams. At our schools, we
feel huge appreciation of police work in supporting us when we have
disciplinary problems and, more importantly, in helping to provide
preventative education.

It is crazy that their best efforts to clear the streets of offenders are
frustrated by lack of manpower even to handle the paperwork. It is perverse
that our justice system is so skewed in favour of the rights of minors that
it can be impossible to bring known offenders to book.

It is far too early to blame the present administration for the situation in
which we find ourselves. Indeed, we in education applaud its robust stand
against the legalisation of cannabis.

There is a war in progress and it will not be won without a major exercise
of political will, a battle to rally public opinion and the provision of
funds to ensure that rhetoric can be turned into genuine policy. The test
will be whether society can hold anyone to account for success or failure.
As long as we remain in "phoney" phase, the media will continue to
sensationalise, trivialise and effectively glamorise.

Patrick Tobin is the Principal of Stewart's Melville College and The Mary
Erskine School, Edinburgh