Drugs at Private Schools

[abignael]

I have a DD in Sixth Form at a Surrey private school (day school) and I was recently looking at schools for my DS for the 11+ next year. I asked for her opinion on schools in the local area and was shocked that most her responses included references to the pupils there being “druggies.” I was particularly appalled when she told me that pupils at a school where I know a housemistress frequently smuggle in Ketamine and take it in their dorms. Apparently this is not uncommon at private schools - particularly boarding ones according to her. I won’t name the schools as I feel dragging their names through the mud at the behest of a teenage girl is inappropriate but could anyone enlighten me on this?

'Private schools are money makers. All bullying and drug issues are swept under the carpet.'

Many of them are a brand and will protect it at all costs, but a teacher friend of mine always said that the private school kids had more money to get better drugs than any state school she taught in...

Not sure about the stats with regards to drug use in private v state but can imagine, as said upthread, more disposable income in private or leafy, high achieving comps and grammars.

The factor you should be looking at is the rugby boys. At all the schools I know, or where friends have their kids, it seems to be that it's the rugby boys who are the 'naughty sporty' and who seem to be the party goers and early experimenters.

I’m not sure it’s school related it’s depends on which set your child gravitates towards. Where we live the more confident kids cross school socialise anyway which would skew any result!

Anecdotal but My 14 year old had a gang here on Friday 2 from private school x 2 from private school y 3 from private school z and a couple from another state school and her school mates from her own state school. They were all utterly indistinguishable from each other.

Still think the rugby lot are more prone to it for some reason.

Thinking about it my first exposure to anyone even doing drugs was staying with a friend of my mothers when I was 16 whose Dd went to the top girls school in London. Never come across them at all at my rural comp!

I know that there is some evidence of greater drug use amongst current and past privately educated parents, but I'm not sure that it's the most robust evidence imaginable, e.g. that it controls properly for variations in geography, social class, ethnicity, the characters of the children & their families, and so on.

At the risk of stating the obvious, one thing I'll say for certain is that it's much harder for parents who are worried about this sort of thing to keep a really close eye on kids who are away at boarding schools.

Urban vs rural likely makes more sense than private vs state, as dealers have a much bigger market in cities and also easier to disappear in the crowds.

Affluent vs deprived will probably influence the quality/price of drugs, but I don’t think it would be a reliable indicator of how widespread drug use is.

A selective state grammar in an urbanised environment will likely have way more issues to deal with than a rural independent boarding school in my view.

My kids are in a big campus coed boarding school deep in the countryside and far from London. My kids have never been offered drugs by friends, vaping is an issue but school has strict punishments in place when kids are caught.

'My kids are in a big campus coed boarding school deep in the countryside and far from London. My kids have never been offered drugs by friends,'

And you would know how exactly, given that they're boarding? I think we all need to be vigilant, particularly with kids who are in the middle of nowhere... boredom sets in.

Maybe you, with no knowledge of this poster or her kids, know best, hmm?

I do think it is funny when parents say, "My kids have/would never.....".

Drugs are used in schools across the board, makes no difference whether state or private. That doesn't mean all children try them of course but they will be available if they want to. Usually cannabis.

They r often the kids with excess funds so are more likely to have cash available, it’s nothing knew, even 30 years ago the people I knew that took drugs were from families where the kids had Au Pairs and clothing allowances.

I don't think it's funny. Most kids don't actually try drugs. I think parents can quite easily be right when they say that their kids aren't into drugs.

You're right in that ultimately it depends on the child. They all mingle between schools for drugs too. However this doesn't cross over into mingling between the rich and poor schools from what I've noticed with DD. They all kind of stick to their own type of school if that makes sense. It's London too so lots of schools around but the middle class ones will mingle with the other middle class school or the grammar, as often they have links through sports or music. Their socialising budgets are also much bigger than the ones poorer kids have so even if they know each other from those clubs, they just don't meet up.
A good example of this is when my DD met up with some kids from orchestra. Half of them took the bus (free) to central London, the other hopped on the tube (0.95p one way). The bus ones took an hour longer to arrive, didn't have money for bubble tea and urban outfitters and that was the only time they all met up together. Cross school socialising isn't purely down to confidence.
My DD says the richer kids in her school have tried ketamine and regularly smoke weed and have money for vapes. The poorer ones are often using those nos balloons as they're dirt cheap or weed that someone's brother might sell. They all try what they can afford really, but money does stop you to a certain extent.

If you think your kids' school is a drug free zone (it won't be) then you had better prepare them for the uber eats drug takeaway menus pushed under their door at uni Halls

Drugs are everywhere, don't bury your head in the sand, teach them to refrain.

My mum thinks I’ve never done drugs. I have, in my youth, used coke, ket, ecstasy, MDMA, speed, and weed. I went to a private school and have a PhD and, in my late 30s, am an academic. A lot of my students use weed at the very least. Alcohol is so expensive in my university town that they get more thrill per pound spent by doing drugs.

The hysteria and secrecy that drugs create is unhelpful and harmful, because I saw and saved more girls in harms way from alcohol than we ever did from drugs. The point with which young, socially engaged teens and adults might resonate more is the social and environmental cost of drugs, which are legion in the communities in which they are produced and from where they are dealt. I know that’s what changed my attitude and put me off. The health scares are ineffective, because the majority of us experience alcohol as making us feel worse (blackouts, embarrassing behaviour, crippling hangovers) than having some Mandy, loving on everyone for a few hours and then going back to relative normal, albeit a bit blue for a few days.

My partner and I are teetotal these days, just because we have never liked drinking and the drugs make us feel too guilty.

Not all teens cane that many drugs.

marmite2023 I think you're being very honest. I'm pretty sure both my DC (state school kids in an affluent area) - one still at uni and the other since left - have done most of that list. I'm not a fan but I am a realist. I don't believe either has a massive problem with their drug use, they just party and club from time to time and manage to work and study.

Anyone whose kids get in at 4 or 5am then you'd have to suspect that something is keeping them going till those hours. I was quite a social animal in my youth - but not a drug user - and naturally I could rarely keep up all night.

In my youth I used to keep up until the early hours with nothing else than alcohol and coca cola and the occasional energy drink. Whereas I tried many of the above list out of curiosity and social pressure as a one-off (or 2-3 off:), I was never really into drug use and neither were my friends.

Alcohol it was for us, the rest was a curious side note just to be in the know but for me the popularity of these drugs is exaggerated by the mystery of the forbidden apple.

In my days it was always the arty / humanities types who were experimenting most with drugs, as they are the ones who are into psychedelic experiences. I am surprised by the claims that it’s the rugby types, it doesn’t reconcile with experience. Stem kids were more into beer, economics/business majors into wine, finance majors into spirits same as the sporty kids (efficiency, no sulphur, no gluten) 🙂

DT’s attended private day schools and when I questioned them said that everyone knew who was on drugs and knew how to get hold of them.
at University ( London and Oxford) the situation was much the same. Neither was directly offered drugs, but knew where to look if they wanted them. They didn’t. They did a fair bit of drinking though.

If all drug issues are swept under the carpet at private schools how come I have emails from my children’s private school about pupils that have been ‘asked to leave’?

They are not swept under the carpet, TheWomanTheyCallJayne, the schools take such issues very seriously and the pupils involved expelled. It's the same for other things, theft for example. For offences the school considers to be very grave there are no second chances. I know that because I am surrounded by private schools and grammars who follow the same ideals.

I know they’re not. I was replying to a claim that they were.

I’m a lecturer in arts and humanities who played full contact rugby for 12 years at uni and club level. You’ve got me coming and going with that one…

😁