JACKSON STUDENTS IN SURVEY SAY TOBACCO AND DRUGS ARE HARMFUL

JACKSON -- Although 88 to 97 percent of students surveyed in the seventh and ninth grades in the Jackson School District agreed that cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, marijuana and cocaine were harmful, the consensus did not extend to alcohol.

In that category, 72 percent of seventh-graders felt alcohol was harmful while 22 percent did not. However, 31 percent of the seniors said alcohol was not harmful, while 69 percent said it was.

The survey, conducted in the spring, is a part of the Jackson School District's Drug Free Schools and Communities Program, said Fred Jones, assistant school superintendent. "This is a federal program intended to make some inroads into the problems of drug and alcohol abuse in schools and communities throughout the United States," he explained.

Jones said each school district that participates in the federal program is required to have an advisory council that includes representatives from several groups, including law enforcement, medical, community leaders, parents, teachers and students.

The school districts are required to have a kindergarten-12 program on drug- and alcohol-abuse education and a policy of penalties for drug and alcohol abuse by students and employees.

Jones said 90 seventh-graders at R.O. Hawkins Junior High School and 77 seniors at Jackson High School participated in the 1993 student health survey. The students were chosen randomly from high-school government classes and the junior-high-school language arts classes.

The community assessment portion of the survey was answered by 46 of the 75 adults who were selected randomly by the advisory council.

According to the student health survey, 61 percent of seventh-graders and 96 percent of seniors said they had consumed wine, liquor or beer, with most of them having their first taste of liquor between ages 11-14.

Over half (56 percent) of the seniors said they used alcohol to have a good time with friends. Forty-three percent of the seniors said they used alcohol to relax or relieve tension, and 43 percent said they drank to experiment with alcohol. In contrast, 24 percent of seventh-graders said they used alcohol as an experiment.

Thirty-two percent of the seniors said they have used alcohol three to nine times in the last 30 days, while 13 percent of seventh-graders said they had tried alcohol one or two times in the past 30 days.

Ninety-six percent of the seniors said alcohol was easy to get. Other drugs were seen as more difficult to obtain. Jones said if alcohol is easy to obtain, there is less negative attitude about underage drinking.

Not surprisingly, 42 of Jackson adults surveyed rated alcohol among the top five drug problems in Jackson. The other four categories (in order of importance) were marijuana, inhalants, stimulants and cocaine.

Twenty-five of the adults surveyed said they felt alcohol and other drug problems among teenagers was a "somewhat serious" problem and 20 said it was a "very serious" problem. Most of the adults felt the drug and alcohol problem was caused (in order of importance) by peer pressure, personal-family problems, parental example, "to be cool," to experiment, and from watching television.

A majority of the adults said continuing education and strict law enforcement were the best ways to deal with the drug and alcohol abuse problem.

Jones said the surveys show that while adults believe the students drink in response to peer pressure, few students in the survey felt that was the reason. He also said many adults believe only students who do poorly in school have a drug or alcohol abuse problem.

"A lot of the abuse of beer and alcohol is by average-to-good students who have a good attitude toward school," he said.

A majority of the junior- and senior-high-school students surveyed said they had never used marijuana, but the percentage was lower among seniors: 26 percent said they had used marijuana and 74 percent said they did not.

Over 80-95 percent of the seventh- and 12th-graders said they did not use cocaine, tranquilizers, or amphetamines. A similar percentage of each group said they had never used inhalants, but 49 percent of the seniors said they had used stay-awake pills compared to only 9 percent of the junior-high-school-age students.

Jones said the survey shows there is still misinformation among students on how a person gets AIDS. However, 97-98 percent of the students surveyed knew that AIDS/HIV infection can be acquired through sexual intercourse. Another 85-90 percent of the students in both grade levels said people can reduce the risk of getting AIDS by avoiding sexual intercourse.

On a darker note, the survey revealed that 13 percent of the seventh-graders and 14 percent of the seniors had seriously considered suicide within the past three months. In response to those statistics, Jones said: "I believe these to be significant and accurate figures. School-age years are traumatic years for a lot of students; a lot of problems come into focus during that period of the students' lives."

Jones said the student health survey and community assessment points out the need to continue to emphasize the problem of drug and other substance abuse, especially the use of alcohol, including beer, by teenage students. Continuing education with the district and law enforcement should be used, he said.