LABOUR APPROVES RANDOM DRUG TESTS FOR PUPILS

Schoolchildren will be subjected to random drug testing, Tony Blair
announced yesterday, under new guidance for headteachers to be
published shortly.

The move, routine in some American schools, is designed to reassure
parents worried about the increasing availability of drugs in the playground.

But it raises serious questions over the invasion of pupils' civil
liberties: random testing has not been introduced in workplaces
because to take samples without consent from an adult constitutes assault.

With around a third of 15-year-olds having smoked cannabis, heads
could also find themselves rapidly swamped with positive results.

Drug testing will not be compulsory for schools, but the Prime
Minister said new guidance for headteachers next month will advise on
how to start a programme if they wish.

'If heads believe they have a problem in their school then they should
be able to do random drug testing,' he told the News of the World.

'Guidance will be given to headteachers next month which is going to
give them specifically the power to do random drug testing within
their schools.'

Heads who want to introduce it will have to gain 'appropriate' consent
from either the parents or the pupil, probably depending on the
child's age. The move will not require a change in law.

Those who test positive are expected to be offered treatment rather
than expelled, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'The emphasis will be
on helping students, not penalising them.'

The announcement is reminiscent of previous headline-grabbing
initiatives generated during times of crisis for Blair's
administration, such as the threat to march yobs to cashpoints to pay
instant fines, which ended in grief for Downing Street.

But a survey earlier this year suggested almost two-thirds of British
parents would support random testing. Several private schools already
use it, including Eton.