TEEN SEX, DRUG USE HIGHER FOR LATINOS

White, Black Youths Less Likely to Engage in Risky Behavior

Latino students are more likely than either black or white students
to attempt suicide, or use cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, according to
a recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study shows overall that U.S. teens are doing fewer drugs and
cigarettes and having less sex than teens who grew up in the 1990s.
However, there was minimal change in Latino teens who had sex, going
from 53 percent in 1991 to 52 percent in 2007.

Victor Ledesma, of the Hispanic Outreach Taskforce, said teens act
this way because of society's perspective of Latinos.

"The teens need to feel good about themselves because society doesn't
feel good about them," said Ledesma. "The youth really has a struggle
to move ahead past the negativity."

San Gabriel Valley school officials see similar results and say more
focus and preventative measures need to be taken with the Latino community.

"I think things are better but there's always room for progress,"
said Baldwin Park High School Guidance Counselor Hugh van der Linden.
"(Latinos students) haven't been targeted as much as other ethnic groups."

The counselor believes cultural differences among communities are
partly to blame. According to van der Linden, in the Latino culture
women who get abortions and use birth control are looked down upon
and the men are allowed to do what they want.

But Karin Duran, Chicano/Chicana Studies Professor at Cal State
Northridge, disagreed.

"I don't think they are looked down upon any more than you would in
general society," Duran said. "Everyone likes to make
generalizations. (Latinos) are not as simple as we would like them to be."

Duran criticized the CDC study saying there are many factors that
could have caused the results, including type of family they come
from, their first language and economic level.

More than 14,000 black, Latino and white high school students across
the country participated in the CDC survey.

Some local teens weren't surprised at the results.

Danielle Hunter, 17, said she knows many classmates who do drugs and have sex.

"People know what they want and they go for it," said Hunter, a
student at La Puente High School. "More people do it because it's not
that big of a deal."

The Rowland Unified School District found its results to be in
alignment with the national findings, according to Nancy Ballantyne,
grant programs coordinator for the district. It received results from
the California Healthy Kids Survey, a survey required for all
districts that get state funds for drug free prevention programs.

Results show 11 percent of 11th-graders in the Rowland Unified School
District use marijuana as well as 10 percent of ninth-graders and 3
percent of seventh-graders. Thirty-one percent of 11th-graders drink
alcohol, a number that has stayed the same in the district since 2002.

"If the parents are heavy smokers or drinkers then it's really hard
for a student to not see this as acceptable behavior," Ballantyne said.

Teens have their own outlook on the national survey.

Veronica Veldez, 17, another student at La Puente High, said many of
her classmates don't think about consequences.

"Even with all the awareness about diseases, people just don't care,"
Veldez said about sex. "They don't take time to consider what will happen."

Teens from the Hacienda-La Puente School District said drug use is
mostly about peer pressure.

But it is not your typical peer pressure, according to Garry Creel,
coordinator of child welfare and attendance for Azusa Unified School District.

"This is not an after-school special where kids are waiting at the
corner trying to push drugs on other kids," Creel said. "It's basic
society and socialization. Kids are going to do what the rest of the
group does."