Possibly the only thing worse than the results of a drug survey given to school kids last year showing that 52 percent of Secaucus High School students have tried drugs or alcohol was the small number of parents that came to a Feb. 26 meeting at the high school to find out what to do about it.
Less than 40 parents showed up to listen to the results of the survey, raising concerns of several officials including Police Chief Dennis Corcoran, who said this might be a sign as to why kids might believe they can get away with using drugs.
Corcoran, who attended the event as a concerned parent, was particularly concerned about the lack of participation at the unveiling of the drug survey results. He said that lecturing to the 40 parents who had attended was “like preaching to the choir.”
“We have 1,600 students in our school system, and only a handful of parents showed up here,” Corcoran said. “We need more parents involved. People need to hear this information. We are not a community in which we have a lot of kids roaming around the streets. Finding kids passed out in public is rare. Kids do drugs mostly in houses or parties, and if parents don’t pay attention to what their kids are doing and get involved, we won’t stop this. Mom and Dad have to monitor their kids.”
The survey, which was administered to students from grades five to 12 in February 2001, showed that at least 27 percent of Secaucus’ high school seniors had used marijuana or another type of illegal drug within 30 days of taking the survey. During the same time period, 43 percent of the surveyed seniors said they had been intoxicated.
Jill Preis of the school district’s Child Study Team tried to put a positive spin on the survey’s results, saying the test, because it’s two years old, may not be indicative of other students currently enrolled in the district. But she did acknowledge that national trends for drug and alcohol use have been on the rise since the late 1980s. The results of this survey – the fourth taken in the school district since 1989 – show that Secaucus tends to follow the national trends. Previous to this study, the school district has conducted three drug surveys, in 1989-90, 1991-92, and in 1996-97.
The survey results establish risk of drug use into three areas: low, moderate and high involvement. “Low-risk” kids are essentially those considered drug-free. Moderate risk students are those who may be occasional users, while high students are those who get drunk or use drugs regularly. This year’s seniors showed that 22 percent of those tested said they had not used drugs or alcohol at all, 27 percent said they had a low drug or alcohol involvement, 22 percent moderate, and 30 percent high. These figures show a dramatic drop in low and moderate drug/alcohol use from the 1997 survey and a slight increase in high risk students.
Alcohol is considered the most accessible drug. The survey showed that the risk of drug and alcohol use grows as a student advances through the school system, with the most significant risks occurring after kids enter high school.
The survey said that of the students who answered the questions, 52 percent of seniors said they were moderately or highly involved with drugs and alcohol. The report issued by the school district this week said, “this categorization means that they are using drugs and alcohol enough to warrant serious concern.”
On a positive note, the report showed that that 49 percent of those surveyed in all grades had never tried drugs or had a very low involvement with drugs.
This could be a bit misleading for a number of reasons, including the change of law requiring parents’ permission for their students to take the survey. Only 50 percent of the students got permission to take the survey, leaving the results questionable as to how accurately they reflect the entire student body.
According to Rev. Will Henkel, who is a member of the Secaucus Municipal Alliance, the town’s drug and alcohol education program, those parents most likely to give permission for the survey are those most interested in their kids in the first place – thus the survey was of those kids least likely to use drugs. Thus, the survey’s numbers may underestimate the drug problem, he said.
Adding to the possible distortion is the fact that a greater percentage of lower-grade students were given permission, about 56 percent, as opposed to the high school students, of which only 47 percent were surveyed. Kids in lower grades tend to have less access to drug and alcohol and a lower percentage of serious drug problems.
Where kids do the drugs
Because Secaucus is more of a suburban community than other places in Hudson County, drug use differs in some respects from communities around it, the police chief said. Whereas some kids do use drugs in public spaces, such as parks and playgrounds – with the lowest usage at school apparently – most partake at parties, or in private homes.
School, officials noted, is among the least likely places for kids to do drugs.
Most kids, Corcoran and others said, use the drugs in the home – either when parents are away, or in the case of alcohol, with the permission of adults, who seem to not see alcohol as a problem.
The survey itself
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.
Preis said the survey was divided into two categories: one given to students in grades seven through 12, while another version for students in fifth and sixth grades.
Samples questions from the survey include: 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, 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?
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 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 forms. In fact, no administrator, teacher or other school official even sees who takes what survey. Kids hand out the multiple answer question forms to other kids, and kids collect them later. Everything is confidential. The sheets themselves are destroyed once the data has been collected and tabulated.
“No teachers or administrators in our school district see the answers; no one writes down a name on these tests,” Superintendent Constantino Scerbo said. “We 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 survey, tabulates the results and sends back a report to the school district on what is found.
The ADAS is completed in a single class period, with most students finishing the questionnaire in about 20 to 30 minutes. The surveys are then returned to R.M.B.S.I., where they are scanned in to our computer and analyzed.
The firm prepares reports on the results for the group of students. No individual results are ever provided. And what if the kids aren’t telling the truth? Preis said in evaluating the test, the company has a formula that allows them to look for inconsistency in answers and to discount those results that seem exaggerated. Two percent of the result from this survey was eliminated on that basis.
Where do the kids get the drugs?
How kids get drugs is not a question on the survey.
However, school officials and others at the public presentation said they have asked it, and the general consensus was that younger kids get the drugs from older kids – and the old kids obtain it from out of town.
“We’ve found that many kids get the drugs from siblings,” said Middle School Principal Fred Ponti.
In an interview conducted with several kids last year by the Secaucus Reporter, kids often obtain drugs via bus or car – often taking the 190 bus to Union City or New York and returning the same way. The 190 stops near Buchmuller Park, a popular hangout and one of the more popular public venues for drug use.
Chief Corcoran said there are several popular places in Union City to which older kids go to obtain drugs, bringing them back for distribution. Several kids during an interview last year told the Secaucus Reporter that parents occasionally supply them with alcohol, and some older kids sell drugs to younger kids. As a result of that interview last year, Corcoran said anyone with information can contact the department anonymously.
“We need probable cause to act on a matter,” Corcoran said. “An anonymous phone call can allow us to investigate a matter.”
Next week, the Secaucus Reporter will look into the various educational and treatment programs available to deal with the problem of drug misuse among Secaucus kids.