Does your child's secondary school randomly screen their saliva and urine for drugs?

[scrooged]

I took ds for a tour last year and they have sent an information booklet to me. On the back there's a section saying that they require consent for drug testing. Is this normal?
ds isn't going there, I'm just wondering how wide spread this is.

No, they don't.

Yes. But only as part of the admissions process.

I'm sure I've seen this somewhere amongst our school (the one I work at) bumf too, but it's not used.

We did have some students who had temporary exclusions, who had to have regular/random drugs tests when they were re-admitted to the school.

I think the thing is a 'drugs culture' can evolve very rapidly in a school into a crisis situation, and it is better to have these measures in place in advance, so that they can be swiftly implemented if required.

Any school who says "we don't have that sort of problem here" is kidding themselves. Drugs issues can arise at any school anywhere these days, and can spiral out of control very quickly if not handled well.

I think zanzibarmum is joking, but these days nothing would surprise me.

No.

Sigh....I'm all nostalgic for my schooldays when my classmates only got into trouble for passing (paper) messages and eating sweets in class.

Oh and for whispering to the person next to you.

I have been involved through work with arranging regular testing for children who have previously been caught taking drugs, at one particular school. Otherwise no, certainly not randomly, which I would have to think long and hard about before consenting to.

In actual fact, I know that classmates of mine were smoking in junior school and drinking heavily/taking drugs by the time they got to secondary. No drugs around in the seventies? People have short memories!

Cory, my trouble is that I have a long memory. I was born in the 50s

My classmates in the '70s were taking drugs out of school by the age of 15. Not much, and not many people - a bit of something passed around at a party, an occasional spliff obtained from an older friend.

the drugs scene seems to be a very different thing these days, so much more serious so much more quickly.

As Rosin says - better to have the system in place if it is ever needed - but you can only hope that the school can be trusted to handle powers like that sensibly and responsibly.

Yes our school requires students and parents to give consent for random drug testing of the students. This is done by the school nurse taking a small hair sample from a selection of students each term. This is sent to a laboratory for testing. The reasoning behind it is that it helps the students to be able to say "no" if they are offered drugs. They can say their school does this and they could be tested. No one has ever tested positive. Students and parents get a demonstration at the start of each year of how it works and everyone seems ok about it when they see how carefully it is done.

I remember school kids sniffing t solvents in the 70s. And heroin was certainly around. Even today, most school children do not take heavy drugs.