SURVEY: DRUGS NOT ODD TO KIDS

Most Students Said They Didn't Care If Others Used

Two-thirds of seniors in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system
said they have seen someone at school with drugs or alcohol, or under the
influence of drugs or alcohol.

And 59 percent of the 2,418 seniors surveyed said that students didn't care
if other students used or possessed drugs or alcohol at school, according
to last year's systemwide survey.

Last spring, school officials surveyed fifth-, eighth- and 12th-grade
students and their parents about the school climate. A total of 8,004
students completed the survey.

Students took the survey during the school day. Surveys are either mailed
home to parents or sent home with students.

The results don't mean that 67 percent of students are on drugs, board
member Buddy Collins said yesterday at a briefing about the survey for the
school board.

'All it would take would be one drug person known by everyone,' Collins
said. 'I'm not trying to minimize the idea.'

Including possession in the question also makes it harder to interpret the
results, he said.

Rephrasing the question about whether students care about drug use might
yield better results, said Marty Ward, an official in the system's
accountability services.

'Maybe we should have asked, 'Do you care?'' Ward said.

Collins said that the results somewhat mirror the world around the students.

'It's no doubt that our schools are a reflection of our neighborhoods, a
reflection of our city,' Collins said. 'So I don't think we should be
surprised.'

The survey drew attention in the spring when the board debated questions
about bullying. After initially including questions about whether
high-school students heard gay slurs in school, the school board voted to
remove the questions.

The question was left on the surveys of high-school parents, and 41 percent
of parents said that their children had heard gay slurs. Board members did
not discuss those results yesterday.

Middle- and high-school students reported seeing the most bullying. About
83 percent of middle-school students witnessed bullying occasionally or
frequently, compared with 77 percent in high school and 65 percent in
elementary school.

About 50 percent of high-school students and 46 percent of middle-school
students said they heard racial or ethnic slurs used occasionally or
frequently. Thirty percent of elementary students said they heard racial
name-calling.

According to parents, bullying was most common in middle school, where 74
percent said their children had witnessed bullying or name-calling.

About one-third of high-school parents - 920 - responded to the survey,
which caused some board members to question the reliability of some
results. Ward said that reliability is always a question with low sample sizes.

Students participated at much higher rates because they completed the
survey at school. About 94 percent of seniors took the survey.

Participation rates varied among parents at each high school as well.
Officials have not analyzed the results by school.

'I would feel better about the reliability if I could see each high
school,' Collins said. 'It really doesn't show me what's going on.'

A task force of administrators, principals, counselors and others will
study the results and recommend improvements such as different discipline
methods, said Toni Bigham, an assistant superintendent for elementary schools.

She said that the task force would conduct focus groups with students to
understand how they interpreted the questions.

'How are we going to measure these?' Collins said. 'It seems like it lacks
a little scientific reliability in place to place.'

It's nice to see what people think, but more reliability might be found
from focus groups, he said. 'I'm not so sure the questionnaires we received
are something we can get a firm handle on.'