Drug, alcohol use is high, survey says

A state-sponsored survey has concluded that Laguna 11th-graders have the highest incidences of drug and alcohol abuse of any district in the county, and that students in lower grades are also using drugs and alcohol.

Parents and school district staff have reacted strongly to the survey, as well as a flurry of articles in local and national publications about it that allege that Laguna kids are better able to access such substances because they are wealthy, and are heavily affected by MTV’s presence in town.

The statistics were pulled from the Spring 2006 Healthy Kids Survey, a state Department of Education-sponsored questionnaire that polled students in grades 5, 7, 9 and 11 on their use of alcohol and drugs, physical health and feelings of safety.

Countywide, only one-fifth of 11th-graders said that they had ever engaged in binge-drinking, or had five or more drinks in a short period of time, compared to 41% in Laguna.

Of Laguna 11th-graders, 67% claimed to have consumed alcohol at some point in their lives, and half said they had used marijuana. In addition, 14% of students in the county claimed to have smoked marijuana in the past 30 days, compared to 33% in Laguna.

The alcohol and drug rates among 7th graders were low compared to 11th-graders, but the survey also found that more than one-third of 5th-graders admitted to having tried alcohol at some point in their lives.

At a school board candidate forum Monday pulled together by parent David Vanderveen, which attracted the attention of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and other major media outlets, parents spoke of their concerns over drug and alcohol use and the effect of MTV’s reality show featuring Laguna Beach High School students.

“This was not softball stuff,” Vanderveen said; he estimated that about 200 people attended the forum.

“No one’s asking tough questions; we have some big issues to talk about,” he said. “The MTV show isn’t enhancing safety at our schools; we’re probably the most infamous school in the country right now.”

Although the forum was held just a day before the election, Vanderveen hopes that the topics raised will resonate with the new board.

“It’s a great opportunity over the next two years for them to deal with stuff that was brought up,” he said. “What we’re really trying to do here is fix the process.”

A Wednesday New York Times article described the survey, forum and parents’ reaction to the controversial “reality” MTV television show that has focused on Laguna students for the past three years.

The article had become the most e-mailed piece on the Times’ website on Wednesday.

“I’m frustrated with outside people trying to tell us what our school is or isn’t,” Laguna Beach High School Principal Don Austin said. “We have 1,100 of the nicest, brightest, most articulate, well-mannered kids around. Our classes are rigorous, our teachers are dedicated, our campus is beautiful, or community supports us — the positives outweigh the negatives 1,000 to one.”

The voluntary, anonymous Healthy Kids survey was conducted by nonprofit research group WestEd, which claims to have accounted for situations in which students had exaggerated or lied. It did not describe its techniques in the findings.

“I think that self-reporting surveys in general have potential for error,” Austin said. “But we’re not in any way claiming that the results have no validity at all.”

He said that while outside spectators get their metrics from surveys and television shows, he gets his when students walk into his office.

“Maybe we need to create our own survey that will address some of these factors, and publish the results,” Austin said. “Every kid I’ve talked to about making good choices has been incredibly receptive. I see kids walking in and their faces light up when they realize we’re just talking about them, and what they’re up to.”

The Register article brought up the implication that students in wealthier areas are more likely to use drugs and alcohol because they have more means to afford them.

“I’ve been in substantially less affluent communities, and drugs and alcohol were still issues, so I don’t think that I entirely agree,” said Austin, who joined the high school this year after a previous stint at La Sierra High School in Riverside County. “But on the other hand, our kids are exposed to social events with adults that are providing alcohol at a much higher rate than I had in Riverside,” he added.

“I think it [alcohol and drug use] is very open here,” Austin said. “If kids are more exposed to it, it becomes more acceptable. There’s a blurred line where it shouldn’t be blurred.”

He added that if students knew that there were school activities they could attend, such as the recent community Homecoming carnival, they might be less inclined to go to parties and bonfires where alcohol is de rigeur. The survey showed that a very high majority of Laguna students believed that consumption of alcohol is harmful.

“Our kids know that drinking is wrong. What they don’t have right now are some of the skills to say no, or to avoid the situation completely,” Austin said. “That’s what we’re working on. Our issue here isn’t drugs and alcohol; it’s self esteem and positive behavior. I think that the drug and alcohol abuse is to a large degree a manifestation of that.”

He said that programs alone aren’t enough to change kids, and that each staff member is striving to create personal relationships with students on his campus.

“Ultimately, no program works if kids don’t think that you care. There’s no magic bullet with this one,” Austin said. “But our small school setting affords us the opportunity to make personal connections with kids. This isn’t always the case at larger schools, where kids can sometimes fall through the cracks.”

He has invited parents to get involved with the district’s Drug and Alcohol Task Force, which is comprised of parents, students, school board members and district and county staff, and suggested that they contact him to get more information.

The Healthy Kids Survey was conducted as a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act, which the federal government enacted in 2001.

The Laguna Beach school districtfirst conducted the survey in Spring 2001, with only certain basic factors considered. The district has since begun to use all available modules of the test, and was the only district in the county to use them all in Spring 2006, according to the survey’s administrators.

More than 60% participation in each grade is required for reliability; figures below that amount are more likely to be skewed. 67% of 11th-grade Laguna students responded to the survey, compared to 83% of 5th-graders in town.

More than 90,000 students were polled throughout the county, but less than half the districts participated.

The lowest drug and alcohol uses in the county were claimed by Irvine students.

Student health factors, such as whether they ate breakfast, consumed the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, or exercised frequently, were very high across the board in Laguna, and much higher in comparison to districts in lower income areas.