Question

Since drug use is illegal, should schools allow random drug testing among students with legal consequences for positive results? Defend your answer.

Answer 1

In January 2005, a school in Kent become the first state school in the UK to report the introduction of random (‘suspicionless’) drug testing. Testing is already widespread in independent boarding schools, with three-quarters of schools reported to be using some drug testing.1 There is no doubt that for governors, teachers and parents drug testing seems an attractive solution both to prevent and deal with illicit drug use among their pupils. The Kent initiative, partly funded by the News of World and supported by the testing manufacturers Altrix Healthcare plc, has been broadly welcomed, such that only a small proportion of parents have opted their children out of the scheme