A question of privacy

THE head of the state’s Council for Civil Liberties has slammed The Southport School for its proposed drug tests, citing serious concerns about intruding on privacy.

Civil Liberties president and solicitor Michael Cope questioned the validity of testing students without evidence.

‘‘To test people without suspicion is just wrong,’’ Mr Cope said.

‘‘A student shouldn’t be subject to invasive tests unless there is evidence that something is wrong.’’

Mr Cope said students would not be breaking any laws if they tested positive.

‘ ‘ Quee n s l a n d ’ s o n l y d r u g - consuming offence is if they are in possession of drugs or caught driving,’’ he said.

Mr Cope said the best way to approach the issue was to target high-risk students with ‘‘existing forms of intervention’’ such as counselling.

‘‘The punitive and inquisitorial methods of deterrent are ill-advised given the background of many drug takers in schools.’’

‘‘The Queensland Parliament also inquired into the issue in November 2010 and rejected drug testing in schools for those reasons.’’

Mr Cope said the council would not support random drug testing in any environment unless workers were handling dangerous machinery.

L e a d i n g c h i l d p s y c h o l o g i s t Michael Carr-Gregg said the accuracy of drug kit results had been an issue.

But Mr Carr-Gregg said he had seen successful second-chance systems at two Victorian schools – Melbourne and Geelong Grammar School – and would support a similar system at the Gold Coast.

‘‘Studies have shown a problem with the accuracy of random drug tests and that’s why it’s not widely introduced across Australia,’’ he said.

‘‘At these schools, if a kid is caught smoking, rather than expelling them, they would take part in secondchance system.

‘‘That sort of system has a good evidence base in Melbourne.’’

Mr Cope said although the random testing ‘‘sounded good’’, the tests could be unreliable and inaccurate.

He said Australian schools could face the same backlash as in the US.

‘‘Teachers in America and unions have largely regretted the testing because of the adverse reaction by students.’’

‘‘It deters them from talking teachers about these problems.’’

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Mr Cope said a national study in the US of 76,000 students, found schools which tested teenagers showed no difference in drugs use compared to schools without testing.

report, Relationship Between Student Illicit Drug Use and School Drug-Testing Policies, in the Journal of School Health, showed it i s n ’ t a d e t e r r e n t , ’ ’ h e s a i d .

‘‘National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction commissioned by National Council on Drugs to do a report cited that evidence and said that drug tests were insufficiently in schools.

‘‘It said schools had a high rate of false negatives and false positive readings.’’

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