STUDENTS TELL HOW 8 KIDS TRIED `ECSTASY'

Classmates of the eight middle school students who wound up in hospitals
after experimenting with the drug "ecstasy'' said Tuesday that the group
was mimicking older teens who, they've heard, take the designer drug at
all-night parties.

Coming only days after Chaboya Middle School's "Red Ribbon Week'' drug
awareness programs, the incident stunned the East San Jose campus.
Principal Bette Samdahl spoke to students on the public address system,
warning them against drugs and trying to calm them. She also sent a letter
home to parents about the incident.

Students Were Abuzz.

"This is the first time that anything like this has happened here," said
Rachel Cerna, an eighth-grader, who added that many students felt a need to
talk about Monday's events. "I think (the eight students who took the drug)
did it because of peer pressure."

A dozen eighth-graders interviewed on campus said ecstasy and other drugs
aren't difficult to obtain. And, they said, their best sources for
information on the "in" drugs include the Internet and the school's drug
awareness programs.

The seven boys and one girl, ages 12 to 14, who took the pink pills during
class Monday face possible felony charges for possession of drugs on
campus. All were taken from school by ambulance to hospitals, where they
were treated for dizziness and elevated blood pressure.

Two boys were sent to juvenile hall Monday evening, pending investigation
of possession of drugs for sale. The other boys were sent home from the
hospital in their parents' charge that night. But the 12-year-old girl was
held overnight at Regional Medical Center, formerly known as Alexian
Brothers Hospital, before being released to her family Tuesday.

In her letter, Samdahl advised parents to keep a closer watch on their
children. She noted, "We spend thousands of dollars and countless planning
hours each year to provide programs in our Quest, leadership and physical
education classes; we hold assemblies and visit classrooms regularly to
remind students to be wise in their decisions and vigilant about reporting
problems before they get out of control."

Students Face Punishment

The principal also explained that the eight students were being disciplined
and school officials had met with their families. Under Evergreen School
District policies, the students face possible expulsion for possession,
purchase, sale or use of controlled substances on school grounds.

On Tuesday, students were reconstructing the chain of events. Eighth-grader
Jason Nguyen recounted what his group of friends understood had happened.

Before school started at 7:35 a.m., he said, a seventh-grader gave a bag of
``about 20 or 30'' ecstasy pills called "pink star" to an eighth-grader.
The older boy later passed the pills out to friends during breaks between
classes. Jason said the eighth-grader was giving out the pills free because
he was "trying to be cool," showing that he had the drug.

Although most declined the offer of a pill, the students who accepted did
not take the pills right away, Jason said. The eight students went to
separate classes but agreed to swallow the pills at about the same time --
between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. -- because they had heard it's the way ecstasy
is used at the all-night parties, or "raves."

"It's a party drug, so they wanted to take it together," Jason said.

By lunch time, about 11:30 a.m., each of the eight students was acting
strangely in class and was taken to the school nurse. Jason said the
12-year-old girl "got very sick" and began vomiting in class because she
took "one and a half of the pink stars," more than the others took.

Although the drug scare drew quick community and media reaction, both the
students and youth experts say it's an isolated case.

A 1998 national survey reported 2.7 percent of eighth-graders said they had
used ecstasy.

Early Risk-Taking

Still, a September survey of teens by the Santa Clara County Department of
Public Health found signs of early risk-taking behaviors among middle
school children, including 33 percent who had tried cigarette smoking; 51.5
percent who had tried drinking alcohol; 14 percent who had used marijuana
during their lifetime; 9.6 percent who had had sexual intercourse; and 3.6
percent who had tried cocaine.

"Kids are going through a tremendous amount of change at that age --
physical, social, emotional," said Marybeth Nacey, who runs the Role Model
Program, a 10-year-old non-profit intervention program funded by the city
and United Way.

"It's a time of experimentation, when they're going through a transition
and willing to take risks," she said.

Parents Were Dismayed.

"It's shocking," said Elsy Acosta, who was waiting to pick up her daughter
after school Tuesday. "I've never heard anything bad about this school."
Acosta said she plans to talk to her child about what happened "to make
sure that she will be all right."

Ba Nguyen, whose granddaughters attend Chaboya, said they moved to the area
because of the reputation of the school district.

"I thought this was a good area," Nguyen said. "Who could have thought it
is also affected by drugs?"

Students said what happened to their friends reinforces the lessons they've
learned in class about staying away from drugs, but also acknowledged the
easy availability of ecstasy, calling it ``E'' -- the street name for the drug.

"It's very easy to get E," one said.