There’s been no shortage of opinion on the rights and wrongs of drug testing in schools, and the concept of ‘sniffer dogs’ brings with it its own set of issues.
Visiting Buckinghamshire for a report on their pilot scheme (page 8), I was not at all comfortable about the thought of children being lined up and investigated by dogs that had been trained to detect drugs on them. But the pilot exercise had been very carefully planned and constructed, with opinions canvassed every step of the way with parents and pupils. Head teachers reported that the schoolchildren enjoyed having the dogs visit school – but for some of the grammar schools in leafy Buckinghamshire I suppose it’s a bit of a welcome diversion.