PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACCEPT DRUG CULTURE

ONE IN THREE 14-year-olds in leading public schools has tried drugs and one
in ten is a regular user, head teachers said yesterday.

A survey also showed that more than four out of ten sixth-formers have
tried drugs.

The heads of the fee-paying schools who commissioned the survey are said to
be "stunned" by these findings.

A report from the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference argues that
illegal drug-taking "is no longer limited to a disaffected and rebellious
few. It is part of the culture of teenagers".

It suggests that schools should end the "zero option" of expelling pupils
for all drug offences. Instead, they should concentrate on drug education
and random tests for pupils suspected of using drugs.

While drugs are the greatest concern for heads of boarding schools, the
report says, day school heads are more concerned about the use of alcohol.
More than half of boarding schools, but only a quarter of day schools,
reported that they had at least one drug-related incident a year.

The heads recommend that senior pupils be issued with identity cards and
that staff in all pubs and off-licences be urged to request to see them.

The survey of 2,400 pupils in 20 schools, carried out by the Schools Health
Education Unit, found that slightly fewer 14-year-olds in public schools
had used drugs than 14-year-olds in state schools. One in three heads
expected to find as few as 5 per cent of their younger pupils had tried
illegal drugs.

Only among girls is drug-taking more prevalent in private schools than in
state schools. Cannabis is by far the most frequently used drug, and six
out of ten pupils believe it is not harmful. Poppers come next but Ecstasy
is very rare.

The report is firmly against the legalisation of cannabis and challenges
pupils' belief that it is safe. But it argues that schools should be
flexible. "While it is arguable that the 'zero option' approach of
prohibition and threats may well have inhibited even greater proliferation,
it is clear that, by itself, it will not stop or solve the problem. We
emphasise that this is not a reason for abandoning it, particularly in
schools which have confidence in it, but many schools are choosing to
modify it."

Boarding schools take a tougher line than day schools. Just over half -
compared with a fifth of day schools - expel students automatically for
bringing drugs into school. Three-quarters of boarding schools but less
than a third of day schools - use drug testing.

Patrick Tobin, a past president of the conference, said both the police and
the Government needed to do more to break the "chain of supply" of drugs to
young pupils, usually outside of school. Mr Tobin, head of Stewart's
Melville College and Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh, said: "If I pursue
the drugs chain in Edinburgh, I find it almost unchecked. I see no evidence
that the police are interested in the small fry."

Dr John Barrett, head of the Leys School, Cambridge, chaired the working
party that produced the report. He uses the more flexible approach to
drug-taking incidents, which increasing numbers of public schools are
adopting.

"We say that if you are involved in drugs in any way then you are liable to
be expelled. I would always expel someone for dealing in drugs. But we have
some flexibility in the policy and I may use suspension for some pupils if
I have reason to believe they feel they have made a serious mistake."

Dr Barrett secures the written agreement of all parents to conduct drug
tests on those pupils suspected of taking drugs or those found in
possession of drugs.

He said he would suspend a pupil who had used drugs and who had no previous
record of drug-taking.

James Sabben-Clare, head of Winchester and this year's HMC chairman, said
that any pupil involved with drugs was liable to be expelled but exceptions
were made.