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?

Those same rules re piercings and tattoos apply in all pay primary schools here. Many of my sons peers get their piercings over the long summer break and swap them out for clear “holders” in lieu of the jewellery when the school term begins. Some of the teens manage to get away with them undetected but the schools have a very clear policy for those they do spot that it’s suspension until they agree to remove it. Makeup is also prohibited.

*post primary not pay primary sorry! Also ditto on the hair colouring.

This.

Haha, it depends where you heard it. In a pub or a club it would be an innocent sounding pick-up line to lead the conversation towards sex and schooling.. while keeping a gentle profile

@ReneeX
Most dealers sell to adults. Not DC at school. Boarding Dc have less opportunity to buy. There’s little evidence regarding money means more purchasing, stealing means purchasing. Plus drugs aren’t expensive. It’s ludicrous to think state Dc are less vulnerable to drugs. Their families have money too. The grammars in my area are full if MC parents.

Not according to this https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/private-school-pupils-drug-alcohol-addictions-more-likely-new-research-money-fake-id-a7766951.html

As the article says, richer kids can afford to buy drugs more easily and get fake ID easier. It reckons that the addiction rate is up to 3 times as much for girls from private schools.

As others have said, private schools are a business and they will hush stuff up rather than make examples of people.

Anectdotal, but in my kid's private school (my two are the clever ones with the bursary who are top of their years at their school), it's the richest kids who are bringing the drink and drugs in. One of the kids is the child of a Lord and is a repeat offender. Their parents recently donated a large sum for a new building for the school and funnily enough their kid wasn't expelled when caught. This kid is also an entitled bully and their grades are bottom of the class

@TizerorFizz
We are not talking about who is globally the key persona client and it is an adult. You are dissolving what I said by making irrelevant reference. Private schools are not only boarding schools.

>There’s little evidence regarding money means more purchasing

Yeah, tell that to anybody with basic knowledge of economics. Will laugh at you 🤣. I afraid that the more money you have the more you shop

,>stealing means purchasing.

But it is a margin of society and tiny tiijny percentage of kids that would steal to buy drugs. Otherwise, it would be openly in public that poorer people are thiefs and rich are not. Ah no wait, there are those rich kids which steal from they parents if they are forbidden something.

It is mostly rich people who send kids to private and not poor. The schools don't have 70 percent of kids on bursaries and scholarships.

@RJ57

Ahaha so funny... the Lord's son reminds me about the situation from the US university where I studied 20 years ago. There was a rich Asian boy who wouldn't get to the MBA program as you have to pass GMAT exam very well. His dad was a billionaire who funded two huge new buildings at the University campus. The buildings were named with his name and his son not only was accepted with very low score but also was doing nothing and still passed with flying grades. The worse off were the students who got him in the team to work on the group project- He hardly spoke English. The young lad graduated and after 5 years the building went back to the previous name...

It is often the children who struggle to keep up/ meet their parents expectations that 'give up' with trying to do well academically, because hard work doesn't equal success in their learned experience. It is these children who are often at risk of turning to drugs whether they are at a state or private school...

@Rockhall

Scroll up..Above there is my post with the link to the government studies. I always base what I am saying on a legitimate source.

Private school kids have access to more money and therefore more class A.

My DD’s school is similarly strict but the school rules also make for a brilliantly comedic read as they’ve clearly been amended as to remove loopholes pupils found.

Not so, the day pupils bring them in for boarders at three private schools near me or supplies are chucked over the wall/fence.

Not so, the day pupils bring them in for boarders at three private schools near me or supplies are chucked over the wall/fence.

If this is common knowledge then why haven’t the police and school been informed?

I just think that there is failure here by some posters that children at private schools use drugs. Certainly not the majority or anything like, but paying for education makes no difference to that instinct in some. These are often very able and capable children who are very good at conforming yet also, clever enough to work around restrictions. Private schools boast about their well rounded educations and these children could get anything they liked very easily. It's not a question or good or bad, but simply motivation and opportunity, same as any other form of crime.

Drugs are a fact of life in investment banking, law, politics, medicine and other elite professions. About all you can do as a patent is point out the downsides in terms of mental health and addiction.

Realistically, being caught or prosecuted is for the birds. The more money you have, the better insulated you are from these risks. That's true as an adult and it is true for those under 18.

I'm sure some private school pupils take drugs. Not many take them at school though which was the OP.

Many do take drugs in school. Illegally obtained Ritalin and Adderal are rife among “high achieving” students, particularly around exam times.

Drugs testing also seems pretty pointless. All you will do is ensure that potentially these children who have issues are driven to use of substances which disappear more quickly, which are more harmful like cocaine.

I don't think it's a massive issue all the same. The idea of a high achiever who goes on to a good university or job in the City who doesn't encounter these things would have to be unbelievably sheltered.

I’ve just been reading uk based research that actually links drug taking with adverse childhood experiences. DC with more than 3 are far more likely to take drugs earlier. Money comes into the equation at 17 plus. Before that it’s influenced by culture and parenting. Or in fact being in care, experiencing poor family relationships and other issues that are wholly negative. No judgement is made regarding school attended but the fact that 3 x adverse childhood experiences are closely linked to deprived areas with some cultures (not others) it’s likely fewer private school Dc take drugs at 14. Older Dc, it’s different.

@Lifeisalearningcurve Is that what it says in the Drugs policy and behaviour sanctions policy? I doubt it. It might be fixed term for a first offence, not repeated fixed terms though.

I live near some well known independent day schools here in SW London. I regularly see (adult) drug dealers waiting down the road at these schools just before school finishes for the day. Although the police do move them on from time to time they always come back. I think they know their market is the kids with money.
And it’s the same with the kids at my DS’s state secondary. Apart from the small few who go into dealing themselves and usually get expelled eventually, it’s mainly the wealthier kids doing drugs.

Why on earth are your dds at this school 😅

Not in the UK. Adderall isn't legal in Europe, it's almost impossible to get it even illegally. There's just no market for it. This is extremely common in the states though.

Adderal is easy to obtain illegally in the UK, as is Xanax which isn’t commonly prescribed here either .I work closely with a number of outreach programmes in the city here and it’s frighteningly common. Buying it online was described by one teen to me as being “as easy as pirating a movie online”