Mixed trends in drug use, violence among Barstow youth

BARSTOW • The results of a survey of Barstow students show an increasing number of junior high students reporting drug and alcohol use and violence on campus.

High schoolers, on the other hand, reported those behaviors at similar or slightly lower rates than in previous years.

The results recently came in from the 2008 Healthy Kids Survey, administered in the spring by the schools in the Barstow Unified School District as a condition for receiving federal Safe and Drug Free Schools funding for prevention programs. About 1,239 students took the survey in total.

The survey showed fewer 9th and 11th graders reporting drinking, drug and tobacco use than in 2005, when the survey was last administered.

The older students also reported less violence and bullying in 2008 than in 2005, and more of them said they felt safe on campus. Seventh graders, on the other hand, reported more harassment, more incidents of bringing weapons onto campus, and higher gang membership in 2008.

Disciplinary statistics provided by the school district show that the number of suspensions and expulsions for drugs and violence at both the junior high and high school level dropped dramatically from 2005-06 to 2006-07 but rose again in 2007-08.

Although higher than the year before, the 2007-08 suspension and expulsion numbers for both junior high and high school students still showed a drop from the 2005-06 levels.

Interim Superintendent Susan Levine and Mickey Hirsch, director of instructional support services, said Tuesday that district staff are still in process of analyzing the survey results in the context of all the other data available to them.

“Yes, we have a big concern that the percentages didn’t get better in our favor, but then, the conditions of the test are never the same from year to year,” Levine said.

Each set of students is unique, and it is also difficult to tell how many of the students took the test seriously and answered questions honestly in any given year, Hirsch said. A committee is in process of analyzing the results and comparing them with suspension and expulsion figures and other data to determine how to go forward, she said.

Despite the flat or downward trend in substance use that the survey results seem to show, several Barstow High School students said Wednesday that they believe drug and alcohol use are on the rise among local teens.

Barstow High School sophomore Alyse Royce, 15, and junior Kalani Magaoay, 16, said the upward trend in drug use is focused among the younger students.

“There’s a lot of freshmen that are doing a lot of that bad stuff,” Royce said.

Sophomore Brandon Kelly, 15, said he had noticed a decreasing number of kids drinking, but he thought drug use was on the rise.

The students also expressed concerns over the number of fights on campus. Royce said the situation had improved since last year, which she attributed to tougher discipline by new Principal Ed Cheek. Magaoay, on the other hand, perceived fights as increasing. He and Kelly both attributed the issues on campus to rising gang activity, and Kelly said many of the fights appeared to be racially motivated.

The students’ observations on gangs lined up with survey results, which showed an increase in both 7th and 11th graders who identified themselves as gang members from 2005 to 2008.

Still, the students and their friends said they felt safe on campus overall.

The schools have a number of programs in place for troubled students, including a family therapist who performs small group counseling, a dean of students at the intermediate and junior high school who focuses on intervention, and the Positive Action program for 7th and 8th graders, which focuses on preventing violence, drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

Hirsch said the district is also looking into funding for an anti-tobacco program targeting high schoolers.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or asewell@desertdispatch.com

Survey results

Barstow teens reporting in Spring 2008 they have (Fall 2005 level in Barstow/statewide level in 2005):
• Ever been very drunk or sick after drinking: 7th grade, 17 percent (12 percent/8 percent); 9th grade, 31 percent (35 percent/21 percent); 11th grade, 44 percent (50 percent/40 percent)
• Ever been high from using drugs: 7th grade, 14 percent (7 percent/7 percent); 9th grade, 26 percent (25 percent/20 percent); 11th grade, 31 percent (42 percent/36 percent)
• Binge drank (5 drinks in a couple of hours) in the past 30 days: 7th grade, 12 percent (4 percent/5 percent); 9th grade, 19 percent (20 percent/12 percent); 11th grade, 21 percent (25 percent/21 percent)
• Carried a weapon on school property in the past 12 months: 7th grade, 21 percent (12 percent/9 percent); 9th grade, 16 percent (17 percent/13 percent); 11th grade, 13 percent (18 percent/13 percent)
• Consider themselves a member of a gang: 7th grade, 15 percent (9 percent/10 percent); 9th grade, 13 percent (16 percent/10 percent); 11th grade, 9 percent (3 percent/9 percent)
• Caring relationships with teachers or other adults: 7th grade, 29 percent (48 percent/30 percent); 9th grade, 28 percent (47 percent/24 percent); 11th grade, 42 percent (42 percent/33 percent).
• Perceive alcohol use (five or more drinks once or twice a week) as harmful: 5th grade, 68 percent; 7th grade, 73 percent; 9th grade, 83 percent; 11th grade, 90 percent.

Suspensions and expulsions related to drugs or violence
2007-08 district wide: 55 expulsions, 1,162 suspensions
2006-07 district wide: 43 expulsions, 982 suspensions
2005-06 district wide: 63 expulsions, 1,286 suspensions