SD2 SURVEY SHOWS GAIN IN POT SMOKING

Tobacco use is down, but marijuana use is up among Billings high school
students, according to results of a survey conducted last spring.

Members of School District 2's School/Community and Education committees
met together Monday to hear results of two student surveys examining
behaviors that put teens at risk for health and social problems.

Reducing student risk factors to statistics can be a dangerous business,
said Kathy Aders, executive director of Yellowstone County Drug Free
Schools Consortium.

"Sometimes we look at the results and get alarmed at the numbers - and some
are alarming - but we also need to accentuate the positive," Aders said.

For instance, 78 percent of the district's high school students and 90
percent of middle school students wear seat belts, according to the Youth
Risk Behavior Survey that Aders presented to the committees. Eighty percent
of high school students and 92 percent of middle school students have never
used smokeless tobacco.

On the other side, Aders said two statistics are troubling. The number of
Billings high school students who have tried marijuana rose from 29 percent
to 41 percent in 2001, though the number is lower than the state average of
47 percent.

For Billings middle school students, the number also increased, from 16 to
19 percent in the same two-year span. The state level was 21 percent.

"That is a community concern, not just a school concern," Aders said. "What
this tells us is we have some work to do in that area."

Also of concern, the number of Billings high school and middle school
students who attempted suicide within 12 months of the survey rose from 12
percent in 1999 to 16 percent. The state average among high school students
was 10 percent and 16 percent among middle school students.

Fifty-four high schools were randomly selected and 48 - including three
Billings high schools - agreed to participate in the survey that was
conducted in spring 2001. The survey involved 2,755 students in grades
9-12, including 330 Billings students.

On the middle-school level, 126 schools, 7,655 seventh- and eighth-
graders, including 456 students in Billings, took part.

Among other statistics: 16 percent of Billings high school students
surveyed and 12 percent of the middle school students had smoked within 30
days of taking the survey, Aders said.

That's a drop from 40 percent of Billings high school students and 20
percent of middle school students who said they smoked some time in the
past 30 days of the 1999 survey.

"It's encouraging to see the drop in tobacco use," said Rhonda Boyd,
executive director of curriculum for School District 2, adding that tobacco
information has been integrated in the curriculum.

Forty-seven percent of Billings high school students surveyed in 2001 drank
alcohol within 30 days of the survey, down 10 percent from 1999 and 7
percent lower than the state average. In Billings middle schools the number
was 23 percent, down from 27 percent in 1999 and 7 percent lower than the
state average.

The committee also received a thumbnail sketch of results from the
Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA) Survey, last conducted in spring 2000 and
set to be repeated later this month.

Ernie Randolfi, of Montana State University-Billings said the survey also
looked at adolescent substance use and other youth problem behaviors, as
well as the risk and protective factors that predict those behaviors.

The 2000 PNA survey included 2,119 Billings students in grades 8, 10 and
12, said Dale Rumph, Castle Rock Middle School health enhancement teacher.

Rumph said one of the biggest concerns of the survey was the percent of
eighth-graders - 17.2 percent - who said they used inhalants to get high.
That number decreased to 12.9 percent in 10th grade and 7.1 percent in 12th
grade.

Normally, those numbers tend to increase with age, Rumph said.

"This is the opposite," he said. "My prediction, based on these numbers, is
that as these students move up, we'll see an elevated level of use."

On another issue, Randolfi said a majority of teens in Billings, about 58
percent, see opportunities for positive involvement in the community. Those
numbers drop to between 33 and 42 percent in regard to rewards for that
involvement.

"Are we, as a community, giving recognition to these students?" he asked.

Carl Hanson of MSU-Billings said that as further survey results are
collected and trends are tracked, school and community planning groups can
look at prevention activities and positive involvement that will keep teens
going in the right direction.

(SIDEBAR)

In the next few days, parents of Billings Public Schools eighth-, 10th- and
12th-graders will receive letters informing them that the Prevention Needs
Assessment Survey will be administered on Feb. 26. Parents can choose not
to have their children participate in the survey.