Teens say drugs prevalent in schools

PROVIDENCE (AP) -- A new survey finds that almost one in three Rhode
Island high school students has been offered drugs at school.

In many suburban high schools, that figure jumps to 40 percent or
more, according to the survey performed by the University of Rhode
Island.

At Burrillville High School, for instance, 43 percent of students
surveyed said someone had tried to sell them drugs at school.

"Kids tell me it's the honor students, the athletes, the
cheerleaders," said Susan Wallace, director of Caritas Inc., which
runs several drug-treatment programs for adolescents in Rhode Island.

Barrington and Narragansett high schools were two other suburban
districts with high numbers: 45 percent of teenagers said they had
been offered drugs at school.

Compare those numbers to urban schools such as Central Falls High
School, where only 19 percent of the teens surveyed said they had been
approached by someone selling drugs, or Feinstein High School in
Providence, with 15 percent.

Wallace said in a published report that most adults are remarkably
naive about the availability of drugs, including heroin, cocaine and
Ecstasy, in the affluent suburbs.

"People have no clue," she said. "It's absolutely an
epidemic."

But some school superintendents disagree, doubting the veracity of the
survey, which was sponsored by the state Department of Education.

Barrington Superintendent Ralph Malafronte said the numbers may be
skewed because only a small sample of high school students responded
to the survey.

The Department of Education, however, said that the average student
response rate was 80 percent and, at Barrington High School, it was 84
percent.

"We have a lot of confidence in the survey," said Elliot Krieger, a
department spokesman.

Because the results are compiled from a group of similar questions and
not one single query, Krieger said, any student who tries to throw off
the results will be caught in a contradiction.

Although several high school principals and superintendents tried to
play down the findings, Kevin Sheehan, principal of South Kingstown
High School, said he wasn't surprised by the large number of students
who said they had been approached by someone selling drugs.

"It's a huge issue," he said. "Is it tearing apart the fabric of our
society? The answer is unequivocally yes."

Wallace, who runs the drug treatment programs, says parents need to
confront their children about drugs.

"We need to get parents to understand the insanity of drug madness in
this country," she said.

The findings of the survey were released online Sunday by the
Department of Education.