DISTRICT 62 WILL ASK STUDENTS TO FILL OUT DRUG, ALCOHOL SURVEY Des Plaines elementary school officials will survey eighth-grade students on their attitudes towards drug and alcohol use. Within the next four weeks, Des Plaines Elementary District 62 officials will administer a 99 multiple-choice question survey to 459 eighth-grade students. The survey was developed by the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research at Colorado State University. District 62 officials said they agreed to conduct the survey because Maine Township High School District 207 would be able survey its students for free if the feeder school systems agreed. "It helps us when we write grants to talk about the needs of the district," Associate Superintendent Robert C. Marckese told the District 62 school board. The survey will question students about prior drug and alcohol use and substances they may have abused. Students won't have to identify themselves on the survey. However, some board members objected to the survey. "I don't want these kids taking this survey. It promotes some controversial topics and there's no discussion of it," board member Kevin Shyne said. Board member Jean Warren said she objected to a question asking about the students' ethnicity. Board member Nancy Fornoff, though, said it's important for the district to have such information. "Our kids are very savvy. Some of the things they know can curl your hair. I see no problem," she said. Marckese said the survey would provide results for the entire district and not individual schools. District officials also said the survey questions won't invade students' privacy. The district used the same survey for a biannual query of its fourth-, sixth- and eighth-grade students from the late 1980s until the 1995-96 school year, Marckese said. The survey was discontinued after 1996 because the district lost its grant to fund it, Marckese said. Other Maine Township feeder districts have agreed to conduct the survey, Marckese said. District 207 has also conducted a biannual drug and alcohol survey of its students.
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