Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Drugs at Private Schools

277 replies

abignael · 05/04/2023 20:42

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?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
AxolotlOnions · 06/04/2023 14:25

I went to a grammar school in the 90s and there was a lot more drugs there than the comprehensives. Grammar school pupils tended to be middle class and therefore have more money. Private schools have a lot of drugs from what I've heard.

MrsBennetsPoorNerves · 06/04/2023 14:29

Aintnosupermum · 06/04/2023 14:10

I went to boarding school 30 years ago. We didn’t have drugs in our school until we did. They suspended the girls for 2 weeks. My father pulled us out and sent us to a school with a much stricter policy. There were no drugs, no sleeping around and minimal alcohol at the school I moved to.

Good schools have an easier time being strict about their behavior policies because they have a long waitlist for each year. You won’t find drugs tolerated at competitive schools such as Wycombe Abbey or CLC. Yes it happens but the girl will be expelled immediately.

That made me laugh. One of my closest friends was at one of the schools you mentioned, just over 30 years ago. The drug culture was absolutely rife by her account! I met her in my gap year and was agog at the antics of her old school friends.

Changeau · 06/04/2023 14:54

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 14:15

County lines and private schools? Don’t believe it - maybe an odd occurrence. This thread is very silly. There’s a possibility of drugs in all schools. Some will rarely have an issue. Others know they do have problems. The best advice is to teach your Dc to keep away from drugs and pray they aren’t the type to be interested. It’s quite difficult to predict who becomes an addict. A teacher of DD had a DS die from drugs. You would never have thought that possible. It’s addiction and it can be anyone who discovers they like drugs.

Yes this is true.

boopee · 06/04/2023 15:06

I went to state school in the 90s and drugs weren't rife. The "badass" kids in the helly hansen puffer jackets smoked weed but they were not the majority.

All the private school kids we knew in our village (only three tbf) used drugs though. They just didn't smoke them at the rec in a puffer jacket.

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 15:20

Reading this anyone would think 90% of teens take drugs of some sort. Far more get drunk. Far more will end up drinking too much. You cannot stop it if DC get addicted. School is beside the point.

Postapocalypticcowgirl · 06/04/2023 15:57

As a teacher, I disagree that school is beside the point. Some schools (state/private/boarding) have drug cultures among the students, and if it is normalised, then you are far more likely to become addicted. If you never go to parties/events where drugs are used, it's very unlikely you'd use. That's where it starts for most teens.

I don't know if you can say it's more prevalent in state/private now- as a lot of people have pointed out, the street prices of a lot of drugs have come down and often drugs are easier to obtain than alcohol.

In terms of county lines, in some private schools there will be students selling. Some of these students will buy/pick up these drugs from a dealer elsewhere and take them back to school with them. That's considered "county lines" or, to give it it's legal name "child criminal exploitation".

I have friends who work in private schools, and they're trained to look for the signs of this. I don't believe any of them would turn a blind eye to it, but it does happen.

(And yes, obviously, in state too).

LBFseBrom · 06/04/2023 16:33

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 15:20

Reading this anyone would think 90% of teens take drugs of some sort. Far more get drunk. Far more will end up drinking too much. You cannot stop it if DC get addicted. School is beside the point.

I agree. Most kids don't however quite a few do, usually weed smoking. The type of school is not relevant, it happens everywhere.

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 16:50

We cannot actually quantify anything though can we? We just hear about young people drunk or whatever. We don’t know where they went to school. Most is hearsay. Now the police don’t think robbery is a crime, we don’t know how many are committed for drug money either. It’s all a guess.

DedicatedFollowerOfFashion84 · 06/04/2023 16:59

@Changeau you’re absolutely deluded if you think that affluence or being a high achiever makes a young person less likely to engage in drug use. Those from homes with higher incomes are far more likely to be buying more expensive drugs. The majority of kids from middle income families it was weed and cheap alcohol, the better off kids it was cocaine or mdma etc. Certainly in the grammar school I attended, cocaine use was rife amongst those who came from wealthy families. I had a short lived relationship with someone whose father owned a chain of high end furniture stores, they had a guest cottage on their property where their son had house parties - coke was rife, and this was at 15 years old.

Anyone who says that there aren’t drugs in ALL post primary schools is completely out of touch.

Changeau · 06/04/2023 17:16

DedicatedFollowerOfFashion84 · 06/04/2023 16:59

@Changeau you’re absolutely deluded if you think that affluence or being a high achiever makes a young person less likely to engage in drug use. Those from homes with higher incomes are far more likely to be buying more expensive drugs. The majority of kids from middle income families it was weed and cheap alcohol, the better off kids it was cocaine or mdma etc. Certainly in the grammar school I attended, cocaine use was rife amongst those who came from wealthy families. I had a short lived relationship with someone whose father owned a chain of high end furniture stores, they had a guest cottage on their property where their son had house parties - coke was rife, and this was at 15 years old.

Anyone who says that there aren’t drugs in ALL post primary schools is completely out of touch.

I'd say a good 90 percent of kids never take drugs at school wherever they are.

LexMitior · 06/04/2023 17:21

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves - yes there was at least one pupil at Wycombe Abbey who died of a drugs overdose. She was very talented, but that really does mean nothing.

WobblyLondoner · 06/04/2023 17:22

HappiDaze · 06/04/2023 02:27

Drugs are rife in private schools

Money
Bigger houses with gardens and garden houses for parties
They become popular for hosting parties not because they are necessarily friend material

This is certainly my experience listening to my DS (state school in north London but friends at a wide range of schools). Money, more space at home and more time without parents being around seem to be key factors.

DedicatedFollowerOfFashion84 · 06/04/2023 17:40

Changeau · 06/04/2023 17:16

I'd say a good 90 percent of kids never take drugs at school wherever they are.

The vast majority of kids won’t take drugs… but there ARE drugs in every school…

Changeau · 06/04/2023 17:57

OK, so 90% of kids have never tried hard drugs.

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 18:19

The alcohol figures are higher. That research is interesting. There’s still a considerable majority who don’t take drugs. It’s also difficult to separate trying a drug and getting addicted to a drug.

TizerorFizz · 06/04/2023 18:24

This is info from the NSPCC. It mentions schools but it mentioned disadvantaged DC a lot more.

Drugs at Private Schools
secondspring · 06/04/2023 18:29

DS in 6th form at a small country boarding school and he hasn't come across any drugs at his school. He would be instant expulsion as the headmaster is uber strict on everything. Local comp and my friends son was immediately expelled for having cannabis on him and the sniffer dogs do checks there but huge school in a town.

ivfbabymomma1 · 06/04/2023 18:29

I went to a private school (not boarding) and it was rife for drugs in the 6th form!

TheaBrandt · 06/04/2023 18:39

I went to a rural comp and my mind was blown on a trip to London to stay with my mothers school friend and her Dd who was also 16. Her friendship group were light years ahead of mine - they all smoked / drank / gave blow jobs I had no idea what one was has never smoked and only had the odd cider. I was glad to get home! On reflection I was probably quite square!

LexMitior · 06/04/2023 18:48

Tbh drugs at these schools bothers me a lot less than the pressure on girls to have sexual relationships with boys and how extreme that can get. That seems to be a much greater risk to welfare than a joint or MDMA.

HappiDaze · 07/04/2023 04:26

LexMitior · 06/04/2023 18:48

Tbh drugs at these schools bothers me a lot less than the pressure on girls to have sexual relationships with boys and how extreme that can get. That seems to be a much greater risk to welfare than a joint or MDMA.

Urm it's the drugs that make people more compliant so yes it's more of a worry

Rockhall · 07/04/2023 05:37

I am under constant pressure by shopkeepers to depart with my money

ReneeX · 07/04/2023 08:36

@AintNobodyHateMeBetter
But nobody forced you to work on weekends as we as nobody prevented you from education that would give you a good job later. Not all private school kids take drugs too.

TizerorFizz · 07/04/2023 09:07

So now there’s only sex between students at independent schools? Clearly that’s rubbish too.

Swipe left for the next trending thread