But schools that have been carrying out such tests believe it’s the most proactive way to tackle the problem of drug abuse and the results they’re seeing show that it works.
Being forced to abandon testing as part of their drug and alcohol policies has come as a severe blow to these schools.
Aurora Private School in Sundowner, Gauteng, was one of the pioneers in random drug testing in schools in South Africa.
In the nine years the school has been in existence, it has only had to expel four pupils for drug abuse despite a far greater number of pupils testing positive for drugs through the years.
The school claims that random drug testing brings home the
realities of the consequences of drug abuse to the learners. If a learner’s drug-test results are positive the parents are bought in and the child is required to undergo a programme to kick the habit. Only when the child tests negative again is he or she allowed back into school. If a child tests positive for drug use more than once he or she is expelled.
‘When a child tests positive the first time, they are given enough of a scare to realise the seriousness of what they’ve done and it creates an effective gap for them to make the turnaround from drug dependency altogether. Also, because we have drug testing, the children say that it is a powerful weapon to fight peer pressure. The risk of being caught at school is enough reason to say no to trying out a drug over the weekend,” says Anne-Marie Strydom, the CEO of Aurora.
Strydom believes the DoE’s policy will make it more difficult to weed out drug problems in schools. Strydom also disagrees that testing infringes on children’s rights.
‘At Aurora, children are tested in a group and there are at least two teachers present during the testing procedure. The learners came up with their own system of testing where they could give a urine sample without the possibility of rigging the test and at the same time ensure that their privacy is not invaded while they’re in the toilet,” says Strydom.
But the DoE’s gazetting of this draft policy last month means that schools will no longer be able to test on their premises. The DoE maintains that this approach is meant to protect the dignity and confidentiality of a pupil with a drug problem, and is due to draw up new guidelines for schools in the near future.
‘By its very nature, drug testing is an invasion of privacy and may infringe on the constitutional and personal rights of learners. It should therefore not be the first point of intervention,” says Minister of Education, Kader Asmal.
The draft policy also states that searches can only be carried out if there is ‘reasonable suspicion” that a learner is in possession of a prohibited substance.
But the South African National Council for Alcohol and Drug Dependency (Sanca) has joined in the condemnation of the DoE’s approach.
Adrie Vermeulen, assistant director of Sanca Johannesburg, says, ‘Asmal’s decision has tied our hands and set us back in our fight to help children.”
Vermeulen says that random drug testing is highly effective because it is able to detect drug abuse before the problem spirals into drug dependency. ‘It’s very easy to hide an addiction. If a child is only in the use and abuse phase and not a dependency phase they won’t arrive at school showing symptoms of dysfunction,” Vermeulen warns.
Vermeulen says testing is also a good preventative measure that helps protect children who are not drug users.
‘The reality is that schools have had to take on a more active role in guarding children against drug abuse, particularly as most households now have both parents working full time,” she adds.
Her advice is that schools continue to uphold a strict drug and alcohol policy that has the cooperation of parents and learners and maps out a plan of action should learners be caught using or selling drugs.