HEALTH PROGRAM NEEDS UPDATE

Teens Ask How To Stay Safe With Drinking, Drugs, Sex

More information on how to stay safe when drinking, using drugs and having
sex was the request of a group of Boulder County teens who see risky
behaviors as a part of adolescence.

Experimenting, said one of the students, is "what teenagers do."

The health department asked 31 students from local high schools to comment
on the results of a youth risk behavior survey given last school year. The
survey and focus groups are part an effort between the health department
and the Boulder Valley School District to revamp the district's 20-year-old
health curriculum.

The survey found 27 percent of students were currently using marijuana, 18
percent were having sex, 47 percent were drinking alcohol and 10 percent of
students drove after drinking.

"We are really challenged," said Boulder County Health Department Director
Chuck Stout. "For teens, their world says alcohol and drugs are everywhere."

The focus group students rated drug use as the No. 1 health issue, followed
by violence and alcohol use.

"Kids these days are a lot more stressed out than they used to be, and I
don't think anybody would start using drugs or alcohol if they were
completely and utterly happy," a female student said.

Drug use is common and drugs are readily available, according to the focus
groups. Drug use, especially marijuana, also was seen as an acceptable and
inevitable part growing up.

Solutions offered by the teens include providing information on making drug
use "safe," allowing more time for health education and providing relevant
information.

The discussions around alcohol also centered more on "harm reduction" than
prevention. A common view was that, while there is pressure to drink and do
drugs, it's ultimately an individual decision.

What doesn't work, the students said, is trying to scare them with pictures
of mangled cars, just telling them not to drink and telling them that
they're bad if they drink. They wanted to see "real stories from real
people" on the effects of alcohol and more teen activities.

"When you're bored, you're going to drink," a student said.

Another student said drug education needs to come from someone "who's
actually been around it or done it and told you what the effects of it were
and what it does to you and how it can affect you later."

When it comes to violence, students said they want more education on
violence prevention and more efforts to expose students to other
perspectives outside their clique of friends. Just having someone to talk
to openly about concerns was considered important as well.

Boulder High School health teacher Bill Thibedeau said hearing from
students is helpful.

"The things going on in these kids' lives are so different than when I was
their age," he said. "I need to get a window into their lives. I need to
give them straight-up information that's not slanted by my own biases."

Community forums on the health curriculum are scheduled in November. The
forums will give parents a chance to comment on the overall expectations of
what students should know at the end of fourth-grade, eighth-grade and high
school. Those expectations then will be used to develop specific content.

The forums are Nov. 14 at Boulder High School, Nov. 19 at Nederland
Middle/Senior High School and Nov. 20 at Angevine Middle School. All are
from 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. For more information, call Katy Fleming at
(303) 618-9246.