Pupils face random drugs tests

By PATRICK GOWER

Two third-form girls suspended from Thames High School for smoking cannabis have been allowed back to class after agreeing to face random drug tests.

The 13-year-olds were stood down last month after they were caught smoking the drug in the school toilets by senior students on the last day of term.

They are back on the condition they have random urine drug tests for the next 10 weeks, with their parents having agreed to foot the bill for the visits to the doctor's surgery.

Principal Garry Willacy said: "Cannabis has a terrible effect on learning and our board of trustees will just not tolerate the use of it by students."

Mr Willacy would not name the students for privacy reasons but said their families fully supported the move.

To pass the tests and remain at the school, the girls will have to stop smoking cannabis altogether - during or after school. They could be asked to leave the school at any time to go to the doctor to give a urine sample. "This is helping students change inappropriate behaviour, which at the end of the day is part of what education is all about," Mr Willacy said.

"The girls know that if they get caught with the drug in their system again it will be very difficult to get back into the school."

The girls got the drug from a fellow third-former, who has had his suspension extended by a month and will have to complete a drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme before he is allowed back. He will face random tests as well.

The school has used random tests before. Mr Willacy said senior students had left school because they felt they would not be able to pass the tests and keep within the rules laid down by the board of trustees.

He said the board was considering blood tests instead of urine tests. Urine tests showed only whether the drug was present, but blood tests could indicate that the level of drugs in the body was falling.

Whakatane's Trident High School was one of the first schools to introduce drug tests, in 1997, and a number of schools have used them since then.

Most demand urine samples although a few ask for blood samples.

Queenstown's Wakatipu High School has had a policy similar to the one adopted in Thames for the past four years, but principal Kevin Orlowski said the school had never had to use it.

"It has definitely worked for us here," he said yesterday.

"It is obviously a great deterrent."

School Trustees Association president Chris France said the body had applauded the policy of random drug tests adopted by Thames High School and others.

The association has circulated a petition against cannabis decriminalisation to all school boards of trustees

"Schools have got to watch these kids who abuse drugs like hawks," he said.

"This is all about protecting children, the users and those around them.

"Boards of trustees have to make these tough decisions; the Education Ministry and the Government won't, that's for sure."