Move to bring in random drug tests for school pupils

A Northland high school is set to introduce random drug-testing of its students after 90 per cent of parents polled so far backed the move.

Though Otamatea High School is still waiting for the final results of the survey, board of trustees chairman Murray Cullen said random drug-testing was now "99 per cent" on the cards.

A meeting with parents next week, when principal Haydn Hutching returns from holiday, would air concerns and iron out issues, Mr Cullen said.

"To be honest the quicker we can get on to this the better, because there will be less chance of the guilty kids getting away with it."

The 520-student Maungaturoto school could be the first in the country to introduce such testing. Other schools already test known drug users and use sniffer dogs to catch drug-takers, but it is believed none do so on a random basis.

Mr Cullen and Mr Hutching posed the question of random drug testing to parents in June. Three students had been caught smoking marijuana and a sniffer dog had found one with marijuana, others with marijuana residue, and places where the drug had been hidden.

The school would test for marijuana, methamphetamine, opiates, cocaine and alcohol, with the tests in the form of urine and swab samples by a qualified person.

"If we do find anyone, it's the procedure afterwards that we really need to nail down," Mr Cullen said.

"As far as I am concerned there will be an immediate stand-down and that child would not be able to come back to school without a clear drugs test at a medical centre."

However, not everyone agrees.

Blair Anderson, the director of Educators for Sensible Drug Policy, said randomly tested students were treated as guilty before being proved innocent.

"Why create a sense of mistrust in a school? Scare tactics don't work."