SCHOOL DRUGS TESTS 'UNWORKABLE'

Parents' and teachers' leaders have dismissed possible plans for
random drug testing in Scottish schools.

It follows Prime Minister Tony Blair's announcement that guidance is
to be issued to heads for testing in England.

A spokesman for First Minister Jack McConnell said he "would not
tolerate a regime that was weaker".

But the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association and the Scottish
School Board Association said the idea was "unworkable" and
"nonesensical".

Mr Blair told the News of the World newspaper: "If you have a serious
problem in your school there is no point in trying to conceal it."

Head teachers south of the border are now going to have the power to
test pupils, offer treatment to young users, exclude them or report
offenders to police.

The Conservatives have said they would back random testing if parents
wanted it.

The Liberal Democrats have objected to the plan in England but have
said there would be no knee jerk reaction against its imposition in
Scotland.

The Scottish National Party dismissed the suggestion as gesture
politics which would not address the problem.

President of the Scottish School Board Association Alan Smith said he
was surprised Scottish policy seemed to be being lead by a newspaper
report.

"There are sufficient powers within the schools to address the issues
of drug taking," he told the BBC's Politics Show programme.

"I would be very concerned that it would be seen as a breakdown in the
trust between pupils, parents and teachers.

"The whole partnership and ethos of education could be undermined if
head teachers were then regarded as wardens of Alcatraz who can, at
random, select a pupil for drug testing."

And David Eaglesham, the general secretary of the SSTA, said there
were not the resources to try and run a drug testing system.

Mr Eaglesham said: "In practicle terms this is quite nonesensicle to
suggest that schools are in any way equiped to deal with this kind of
situation.

Poll Support

"This would bring in a whole range of issues to do with physical
contact with pupils, for example if you're going to have to take urine
samples, how can you guarantee that these are the samples of the
pupils concerned without effectively medical scrutiny of that?"

Education Minister Peter Peacock was unavailable for comment on the
possibility of pursuing the policy.

Results from an ICM Research poll which appears in the News of the
World suggest 82% of parents and 66% of children support drug testing
in schools.

Of the 1,000 parents surveyed, 96% said they would want to know if
their child was taking drugs.