It was in 2020 that Nyköping’s high school decided to introduce random and voluntary drug tests. The reason was that they had had problems with students who had been affected by drugs.
Before each semester, the student and the guardian must sign a consent form, which means that the student may be tested at any time during school.
If the test result is positive, a report of concern is made and parents are contacted if the student is under 18 years of age.
Failed to test all programs
Nyköping’s high school, which consists of the units Gripen, Nicolai and Skavsta, has approximately 1,700 students. The plan was that all the school’s units would eventually have drug tests, but that they would start with the students in the vocational programs.
– We chose to do this in order to prepare the students for their profession. There are already drug tests on construction plasters, the aviation industry and so on, says student health manager Klas Karlsson.
But the plan to expand the tests for the whole school has thus not come to pass – four years after its introduction.
– We know that there are drugs among students on other programs, but there is a certain limitation of the resources we have, says Klas Karlsson.
“Could have helped more students”
But don’t you miss other students then?
– Yes, of course we can do that. But the aim is not to find as many people as possible who take drugs. It is to help the students that we can help.
But if you had had tests on other programs then you might have been able to help more students?
– Yes, that is absolutely right. If we had done more tests, we would have been able to help more students. Absolutely, he says.
In addition to not including all the school’s units, they have also not succeeded in including all vocational programs.
– It is about a lack of resources and we have not succeeded in that, he says.
This is how the drug test works – follow along in the video above