DON'T EXPEL DRUG PUPILS, SAYS MINISTER

HEAD teachers should rethink their "zero tolerance" policy on drugs, which
leads to the automatic expulsion of pupils, Estelle Morris, the school
standards minister, said yesterday. She said permanent exclusion was not
always the best way to deal with lesser incidents because the welfare of
the pupil involved had to be taken into account.

Mrs Morris said: "Drugs are a crime but they are also a child welfare
problem." Head teachers needed to keep the "ultimate sanction" permanently
to exclude pupils for serious offences, but there should be other approaches.

Mrs Morris told head teachers at the annual conference of the Girls'
Schools Association in Glasgow: "Many heads will draw a distinction between
selling drugs in school and somebody found with cannabis in their pockets.
The first reaction of many schools has been to adopt a zero tolerance
approach and use exclusion, which is what parents want.

"Yes, there is a disciplinary part of it because there is a message to
other pupils in the school but there is also the welfare of the young
people concerned. If you merely exclude them, then children may not get the
support they need to deal with the cycle of dependency."

Mrs Morris announced that the Government would be providing UKP22.5 million
over the next three years to continue the work started by the previous
Government to educate young people about the dangers of drugs. Guidelines
will be published tomorrow on drugs education in schools for pupils as
young as five.

Independent schools vary widely in their approach to pupils who get
involved in illegal drugs. While some expel automatically, even in the
weeks before exams, others will give pupils a second chance. Increasingly,
the schools are experimenting with random drugs testing schemes under which
pupils are taken back if they agree to be tested.

Mrs Morris said she would not support such a programme in state schools.
She said: "Heads should make the decision about what happens in their
schools but I would not wish to promote a culture of random testing. Drugs
will not go away, we need to be ever more vigilant in educating our young
people about the dangers and temptations they will face. We need to work
together and I hope that independent schools will play their part in
beating drugs too - as many of you are already doing."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said
abandoning "zero tolerance" could lead to local education authorities
putting pressure on heads to keep pupils in class to reach the Government's
target of reducing exclusions by a third by 2002.

Heads were under enormous pressure from governors, particularly parent
governors, to exclude pupils found with drugs, though he thought it was
possible for schools to take in those expelled from other schools because
they would start with a clean slate. He said: "I don't think heads would
make a distinction between bringing drugs into school to use or to sell,
though of course selling is more serious."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski