An American school (requires registration) is going to be testing its pupils for alcohol at school dances:
It was getting so few teachers at Westwood High School in suburban Boston wanted to chaperone school dances. There were drunken quarrels and dramas. At one school event, a student was rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.
The response is to introduce a policy that a growing number of schools are using to deter drinking at after-hours events:
They’re now testing students who enter school dances, including the upcoming prom, with Breathalyzers.
Not everyone is happy about the response:
Some teens complain that the testing policies are intrusive and misdirected. They include 18-year-old Jason Speakman, who thinks officials’ efforts would be more effective if they tested students as they left events to drive home, or increased road patrols.
In the UK all the debate about testing in schools remains about testing for illegal drugs, and much of that debate bares no relationship to evidence of effectiveness.
