QUARTER OF MOBILE COUNTY'S STUDENTS DID DRUGS LAST YEAR

Twenty-six percent of Mobile County's middle and high school students have
tried marijuana or cocaine in the past year, a statewide survey suggests.

Also, 51 percent of the students said they had consumed alcohol while
29 percent reported smoking tobacco, according to the PRIDE Survey,
which sampled Alabama students anonymously last spring. The survey was
administered in about half of the states.

Earlier this month, Baldwin County schools reported that 27 percent of
Baldwin students said in the PRIDE Survey that they had used drugs.
Both Baldwin and Mobile counties had higher numbers for drug use than
PRIDE's state and national averages.

"This means they have tried it. It doesn't mean they're doing it every
day," said Mobile County schools Assistant Superintendent Rhonda Waltman.

"But the fact that our children experiment gives parents the greatest
opportunity to talk to their children about why," Waltman said. "They
should ask, 'Why are you experimenting? Is it the influence of your
friends? What is it?'"

In Mobile County, 15,495 students in sixth through 12th grades
participated in the survey, which included more than 200 questions
about alcohol, drug and tobacco use as well as school violence.

This survey results have come to public attention as law enforcement
officials take a stronger stance against drugs and alcohol. Last week,
three students were arrested at Satsuma High on allegations of
bringing drugs to school.

PRIDE Surveys were given throughout Alabama and the other states as
part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The survey's margin of
error was unavailable.

Among the key Mobile County findings:

Thirty-five percent of high school seniors said they had tried
marijuana over the last year and 13 percent cocaine. The marijuana use
exceeded the state average of 30 percent, but fell below the national
average of 36 percent. Cocaine use here, though, was higher than the
state and national averages of 9 percent.

Twenty-one percent of seniors at Theodore High School reported using
cocaine -- the highest in the county -- followed by 19 percent of
seniors at Citronelle High and 18 percent of seniors at Mary G.
Montgomery High in Semmes.

Fifty-two percent of seniors at Shaw High in northwest Mobile reported
that they had used marijuana, as did 43 percent of the seniors at
Satsuma High and 41 percent of the 10th-graders at Mary G. Montgomery.

Some officials said the fact that the survey was given anonymously to
teenagers meant that it might not be accurate. PRIDE officials said
the surveys included specific questions to signal whether a respondent
was providing inconsistent answers.

George Romano, principal at Mary G. Montgomery, said he thinks the
survey numbers are higher than actual drug use. Still, he said, if
even one student uses drugs, that's too many.

"I'm always afraid that if they get started with the mild stuff,
they'll move to the next step, so we try to do anything to reach just
one of them," Romano said.

Recently, Montgomery and other schools countywide participated in
national Red Ribbon Week, where students wore ribbons proclaiming that
they were drug-free. Schools sponsored activities and speakers to
teach students about the consequences of drug use.

"They will experiment. It's easy when parents are not keeping up with
them," Romano said. "In certain groups, that's the thing to do. In
other groups, that's not the thing to do. ... It's peer pressure."

Cynthia Weaver, director of the Mobile Children's Policy Council, is
working with the school system to examine the PRIDE numbers. The
council includes about 100 community and church leaders, law
enforcement officials and social agency representatives. By February,
the group hopes to have in place an anti-drug plan that would provide
specific services to the students who need them, Weaver said.

"Data's important, but data's only one piece of the puzzle," Weaver
said.

One program that Weaver cites is Mobile County District Attorney John
Tyson's "Make the Right Choices." Since 1998, Tyson and
representatives of his office have used school attendance and
discipline records to identify and help thousands of at-risk youth
early on.