If all goes well, Secaucus students in grades five through 12 will be taking part in a new survey toward the end of February. This study won’t ask students about the designer clothes they wear, but whether or not they take designer drugs. The survey will also ask about usage of cigarettes and alcohol. How old were you the first time you got drunk? How often in the last month? Has your drinking alcohol ever caused you any of the following problems: a traffic ticket, a car crash, arrested, money problems, trouble at school, hurt your schoolwork, [caused] fights with other kids, with your parents, damaged a friendship, caused you to pass out, caused you to forget what happened while you were drinking?
How often in the last year have you used marijuana? How often in the last month? How much would your friends try to stop you from using it? How often have your friends asked you to use it? Have you ever sniffed glue, gas or anything like that to get high?
These are some of the questions that are part of “The American Drug and Alcohol Survey,” which kids will take if the Board of Education approves a draft letter to parents at the board’s Jan. 24 meeting. The survey will be given out during school and returned at the end of the period.
“We’ve just drafted the letter to the parents,” said Schools Superintendent Constantino Scerbo. “If the board approves, we’ll be sending [the letter about the survey] home to parents of students from grades five to 12.”
The American Drug and Alcohol Survey (ADAS) provides critical information to help school districts and communities understand the nature and extent of local substance use. The results of the survey are used to assess community needs, evaluate prevention programs, identify trends in substance use over time, and provide the data required to write grant proposals and inspire others to get involved in substance use prevention.
The survey is a paper-pencil questionnaire that asks about the students’ experience with a variety of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. It also asks questions about student attitudes about substance use, including their perception of the harmfulness of drugs, their intention to use drugs in the future, how easy it would be to obtain drugs, peer influences to use drugs, and whether they would try to stop their friends from using or have friends who would try to stop them. Questions are also asked about age of first use, where they use (if they use), and what kinds of problems they may have had related to drug use.
No names are on the surveys. Kids hand out the multiple answer question forms to other kids, and it is kids who collect them later. Everything in the test is confidential. The sheets themselves are destroyed once the data has been collected and tabulated, officials say.
“No teachers or administrators in our school district see the answers; no one writes down a name on these tests,” Scerbo said. “We are going to use Student Government officers to hand out the survey. Students fill out the survey and other students pick it up.”
Scerbo said The Rocky Mountain Institute of Colorado, which developed the surveys, will tabulate the result and send back a report to the school district on what was found.
“We’re asking for parents to permit us to do this,” Scerbo said. “We’re sending the letter home for the parents to give permission for their sons or daughters to take the test. Naturally, the more students that take the test, the more true the sampling.”
This is the fourth time the school district has administered such a survey since 1990.
The last test was taken in 1997, the results which showed sharp increases of use and exposure by all students in every age group. The survey taken during the 1996-97 school year showed that many more kids have tried alcohol and marijuana than was previously thought, with six out of every 10 Secaucus High School seniors having used it, with 27 percent of them regular users.
That survey’s findings showed that 61 percent of students surveyed used alcohol and drugs, with more than 27 percent considered high risk. It also showed: 64 percent of 11th and 12th graders have used marijuana, and 94 percent have used alcohol.
11 percent of seventh and eighth graders have used marijuana and 38 percent of ninth and 10th graders have done so. More than 85 percent of these kids have tried alcohol.
More than 90 percent of all kids said alcohol was easy to obtain, while marijuana was also available to many, as was cocaine.
The survey results set three levels of risk – low, moderate and high involvement. Low risk kids are essentially those considered drug free. Moderate risk are those who may be occasional users, while high risk are those who get drunk regularly.
The 1989-90 survey showed 69.2 percent of students in a low risk group, 22.3 percent at moderate risk, and 8.5 percent at high risk. The 1991-92 survey showed a rise in low risk and high risk kids and a dip in the moderate risk area. The 1997 survey showed only 40 percent at low risk, 32.2 at moderate risk and 27.8 percent at high risk. This means that 60 percent of Secaucus students, as of the 1997 survey, were at risk of using or abusing drugs and alcohol.
The ADAS is completed in a single classroom period, with most students finishing the questionnaire in about 20 to 30 minutes. The surveys are then returned to the Rocky Mountain Institute of Colorado, where they are scanned in and analyzed.
“What we’re looking for is to get our kids to answer honestly,” said Scerbo. “The company who developed this test made sure that what we got was data, not information on any specific child.”