EFF statement on illegal drug testing at Dale College High School

27 February 2021

The EFF condemns the illegal and irregular testing of high school students at Dale College High School and the subsequent threats of expulsion of matriculants. In an act that resembles profiling and racist criminalisation, these learners were taken randomly and tested for drug use without having shown any signs of intoxication or being in possession of any substances.

The rights of these learners were fundamentally abused, as no school Principal or teacher has any authority to conduct a medical procedure on minors without the approval of parents or guardians.

There is a long history of racial profiling and criminalisation of black youth that spans not only across our country but across the diaspora. It was in the United States where black youth would be subjected to invasive and random drugs searches, testing and raids under the permanent suspicion that the black skin represented thuggery and drug abuse. The despicable actions of those tasked with providing education at Dale High School are a dangerous and racist prejudice that is rooted in the criminalising of black youth.

The EFF will write a letter to Dale High School requesting that they explain themselves and demand that they cease any disciplinary process that is a product of their racist profiling of school children.

We will report the matter to the Department of Basic Education and ensure that all teachers who were involved in this gross invasion of privacy are summarily removed from their positions.

Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 27 February 2021