Drugs and the Inclusion Policy

Now I don't know about any of you, but when I was at school, and I went to a relatively posh establishment, if you got caught with drugs you got expelled. In fact, when I first started teaching, a similar policy existed. It's not the case anymore, as I have discovered this term.

The inclusion policy is a government backed thing whereupon as many children who can cope enter mainstream education. This is whether they have physical or mental disabilities, emotional issues or whatever else their parents have had them diagnosed with to excuse their awful behaviour (ADHD has been a particular favourite in recent times - I know it exists, but it's not as common as diagnoses would make you believe). This is a great policy, IN THEORY. Young people shouldn't be sent to a "special" school automatically; judgements need to be based upon whether they can cope physically and/or mentally with a mainstream school. For some young people it can be the making of them, for others it can be a terrible experience and for the remainder, they are not capable of behaving to an acceptable standard. As far as the various governments who have supported this policy are concerned, it saves them millions of pounds each year because with the inclusion policy, expensive to run "special" schools have closed due to dwindling numbers.

Schools must avoid permanent exclusion (the new word for expulsion) at all costs, but when forced to permanently exclude a child, the school basically has to foot the bill for their future education. With budgets so tight, schools can barely afford to do so. The trouble is that those mainstream schools that can't afford to exclude students are also taking in more students with behavioural difficulties, students who would previously have gone to a "special" school that has now probably closed.

If a child really does have behavioural issues (and many do), for whatever reason (in a lot of cases, no reason other than that they are spoilt brats) they will eventually find themselves facing permanent exclusion. If the school can show that the child is a danger to those around them then the job's made a lot easier, and they are correctly excluded. The trouble is that the children who are taking and perhaps dealing drugs in school (and there is almost certainly one in every secondary school, if not more) are seen as less of a problem; the fact that they are stoned half the time makes them a danger only to their exercise books as they may dribble on their latest attempt at an essay.

Around 10 years ago I taught at a school where a child I taught was caught dealing drugs in the playground. He was excluded permanently from the moment he was caught. This term so far we have had two children caught with illegal drugs in school, and their punishment: 5 days off, sorry, exclusion. One of those two children actually went to complain that her "weed" had been stolen from her bag during science by some others in her class and she wanted it back!

Not only is this not shocking enough but the school (and we won't be the only school to do this) did not inform the police, as they should have done for illegal substance possession, because of the bad press that might ensue. How society has progressed - not. Strangely enough the problem is still there and will only get worse for the following reason: these kids like doing drugs and know that if they get caught they will be given 5 days off to smoke as much of the stuff as they want, at whatever time they want without fear of proper retribution. Hardly a deterrent. In fact, when one of the two said that they'd failed to do their homework as a result of their five day exclusion, I responded with "that's even more reason for doing your homework (the homework is available online), you can't use the excuse that you were caught with something you shouldn't have in your bag", they had a go at me about getting my facts correct (it was in his pocket - massive difference) and that I shouldn't make a big deal (nice choice of words) of it. Unbelievable.

Can you blame the school though? The answer's "Yes and No".

Yes
The school should at the very least report the drug possession to the police. Part of the reason the riots occured in England in August 2011 was because young people don't understand that there are consequences to some actions.

No
Schools have to accept some children with extreme behavioural difficulties in their schools, and these children disrupt the learning of the majority, who are decent kids. If a child consistently disrupts other childrens' chances of a good education, they need to go. Even more so if they are putting other children in danger. On top of this, schools aren't really allowed to exclude people permanently anyway, or at least not do so very much. Those caught with drugs are therefore less of a priority as they are only harming themselves, unless they are dealing of course, which is difficult to prove.

This policy of inclusion is a disaster for education, and along with various other things (pension issues, pay freezes, making it easier to sack what some regard at an incompetent teacher to name but a few) means that teaching will die out as a profession. We are seeing worse newly qualified teachers coming into the business each year because some of the potentially good ones are avoiding the profession like the plague for all the reasons I've just mentioned.

And who can blame them?