Drug use in independent schools: what’s the score?

If a pupil is caught using cannabis, they are asked to leave the school until they can pass a drugs test. In the 10 years I've been at Merchiston, we've done that with eight pupils and not one has been asked to leave the school afterwards
Andrew Hunter, headmaster, Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh

Shock headlines stating that children as young as nine have been found dealing in the playground make it easy to believe that schools have become dens of dealing, dragging, snorting and popping. But what is the situation really like? Do schools need criminal-style drugs enforcement and are private schools really drug testing at every opportunity?

The latest research from the British Crime Survey (BCS) suggests that the use of any illicit drug among people aged 16 to 24 years old actually decreased between 1998 and 2005/06. During the same period, Class A drug use remained stable. That’s still a chunk of young people out there using or experimenting, but things aren’t escalating in the way sensationalist headlines might indicate.

The BCS estimates that 45.1 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have used one or more illicit drugs in their lifetime, 25.2 per cent have used one or more illicit drugs in the last year and 15.1 per cent in the last month. Cannabis remains the drug most likely to be used, followed by cocaine.

Knife crime, drugs and alcohol

In July, Sir Alan Steer’s Behaviour Review stated that, despite concern over the dangers of alcohol, drug and tobacco misuse and current concerns over youth knife crime, standards of behaviour in schools have risen and continue to rise. This helps to explain why, on the whole, schools have rejected drug testing.

Martin Ward, the deputy general secretary of the Association of school and College Leaders (ASCL) says there’s no great need for it in most schools. “Drugs are rarely consumed at school,” he says. “Much more common are the problems associated with alcohol. This is not often consumed during the school day, but hangovers and the effects of accidents and fights while under the influence the night before can have a very damaging effect.”

Some state schools have experimented with a drug testing regime. Much publicity was given to the Abbey School, a comprehensive in Faversham, Kent, which introduced random testing for a year’s trial in 2005. Each week, 20 pupils were selected by computer to have mouth swabs taken. These were sent to a laboratory to be tested for cannabis, speed, ecstasy, heroin and cocaine use. After conducting 270 tests, the school said only one was positive and the initiative was scrapped.

Drug testing at private schools

Over the past decade, drug testing has been part of private school life. A survey by the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) reported that nearly three-quarters of boarding schools were carrying out a form of testing. This reflects the fact that they are residential and, says Ward, “increases the likelihood of drug-taking on school premises, while under the care of the school.”

Random testing is now only likely to be used in exceptional circumstances where the randomness applies only to a pupil who has been in trouble over drugs and is under a cloud of potential expulsion. “If a pupil is caught using cannabis they’re asked to leave the school until they can pass a drugs test,” says Andrew Hunter, headmaster at Merchiston Castle School, a boy’s day and boarding school in Edinburgh. "In the 10 years I’ve been here, we’ve done that with eight pupils and not one has been asked to leave the school afterwards.”

This is now far more typical of a school’s approach to testing where it forms part of a wider drugs policy and is used to keep an eye on pupils who have already been found to be misusing drugs. Or, with the consent of the parents and the pupil, to establish whether suspected misuse is taking place.

Check a school’s drug policy

Most schools have a drug policy available for parents and often to anyone visiting a school’s website. Caterham School, a co-ed day and boarding school in Surrey, openly publishes this on its website. Stowe School in Buckingham has available a policy document that can be downloaded from its website.

Such policies demonstrate that managing and supporting students who have been found using drugs is now viewed as a better alternative to automatic expulsion. In 2005 the number of independent schools that had a policy of expelling pupils with a drug habit had more than halved since 2000. Merchiston Castle has never employed random testing, preferring, if at all possible, to foster trust.

“We focus on education, prevention and deterrent and setting an example for others,” says Hunter, but makes the point that they’re not complacent and that pupils need to understand that any involvement with drugs puts at risk their place at the school.

It can be a delicate balance.  “It’s very difficult to set a good precedent but also look after individuals. Are they forgivable or redeemable?” he asks. The exception at Merchiston and most private schools is when a pupil is caught dealing. That automatically results in expulsion.

Do drug tests work?

A study commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2005 and conducted by Neil McKeganey, Professor of Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, concluded that there’s little proof that drug testing works, even in the US where random drug testing has been used in schools for a while.

There are, however, plenty of concerns about the negative consequences of testing.

These include the cost of testing, the legality of testing, the problems of addressing a positive result, the undermining of trust between pupils and teachers, a possible rise in truancy among pupils most in need of help and a switch from soft to hard drugs that are more difficult to detect. Testing also doesn’t distinguish between a first-time user and a hardcore user, may produce false positives and only picks up a small, random selection of pupils.

“We are completely opposed to drug testing in schools,” says Harry Shapiro of DrugScope, an independent organisation dedicated to reducing drug-related harms and inform drug-related policy. “It destroys trust between students and teachers and there is no evidence that it reduces drug use among pupils. Schools should be providing a safe environment where young people who might have drug problems can voice their concerns. It is also important to remember that most children in the UK do not use drugs.”

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