Pubdate: Mon, 1 Nov 1999 Source: Herald, The (UK) Contact: http://www.theherald.co.uk/ DRUGS IN SCHOOLS Guidelines Should Help To Deal With Problem Drug-taking is, fortunately, rare in our schools, as are supplying or possessing drugs. As the new draft guidelines for teachers and others involved in managing drug misuse in schools point out, most pupils will go through their primary and secondary education without being involved in drugs. And many schools themselves will remain untainted by the scourge of drugs. But two high-profile incidents last year prompted Ministers to begin a process that resulted in the new proposed guidelines. The incidents were all the more shocking because they took place in primary schools. In one an 11-year-old boy unwittingly took heroin into school in his bag and in the other a seven-year-old took the same drug from his home and handed it to a teacher to prevent his mother causing herself further harm. They were isolated incidents and showed in a real sense that school procedures for dealing with drugs could work, since in the one case the heroin was detected and the incident properly handled, while in the other the pupil had enough confidence and trust in his teacher to make his cry for help. But they showed how insidious drugs had become, permeating the one area outside the home where children should feel secure and out of harm's way. Most schools have effective procedures for dealing with drug-related incidents but these two cases showed that they and other agencies needed all the help they could get. Studies suggest that drug-taking can begin as young as age 12, and that a significant proportion of 16-year-olds take cannabis. Secondary schools are therefore much more exposed and vulnerable to the problem but the great majority do their best to contain it. The draft guidelines should also help them deal with a growing problem. It is as well, though, that they are out for consultation because teachers will need reassurance in several areas. The nebulous, but potentially dangerous, guidance that staff "may" need to stop the supply of drugs on or near a school needs to be clarified and tightened up to give teachers the protection they merit. Those who supply drugs tend to be streetwise, to say the least, and this is one area where teachers' duties and obligations will need to be well-defined. The guidelines should result in the various agencies working together more effectively. Schools also do their bit in drug education but that is being looked at separately. Teachers have to react quickly and well when drugs are found in school, and most do. But we should not expect too much of them in the overall anti-drugs strategy. It is conservatively estimated that roughly one person in five who seeks help with his or her drug problem lives with dependent children. It should come as less of a surprise, then, that drugs find their way into school, by whatever means and for whatever purpose. The home is where the real work needs to be done. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D