BLAIR BACKS DRUG TESTING IN SCHOOLS

LONDON (AP) -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday that British
schools will be given the power to carry out random drug testing on
students. In an interview with the News of the World newspaper, Blair said
school principals will have the right to either offer treatment to children
caught by the tests, expel them or report them to police.

"If heads (principals) believe they have a problem in their school, then
they should be able to do random drug testing," Blair was quoted as saying
in the newspaper.

The government had disclosed earlier this year that it was looking at new
guidelines on drugs in schools, but Blair's comments were the first sign
they would extend to random testing.

The controversial plans were welcomed by the National Association of Head
Teachers (NAHT), but were condemned by opposition MPs and civil liberty
campaigners.

David Hart, NAHT general secretary, said the proposal would give teachers
"another weapon in their fight against drugs being pushed or used in their
schools."

But Phil Willis, opposition Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said
school officials should not be dealing with drug problems.

"Drug abuse is a major social problem, endemic across society," Willis
said. "It should not be treated in isolation as a school problem, nor
should it be the responsibility of head teachers to test children."

Barry Hughill, a spokesman for the civil rights group Liberty, said he
could not understand how the new powers would help.

"I'm obviously not a teacher, but I would have thought any school that's
got a drug problem is well aware it's got a drug problem. It doesn't need
random drug testing to tell it that," Hughill told BBC radio.