Healthy Kids Survey shows unhealthy results in Oak Park

Oak Park Unified School District (OPUSD) has serious concerns about alcohol and marijuana use among students following the release of a survey that shows 72 percent of high school juniors have tried alcohol or drugs at least once in their lives.

The California Healthy Kids Survey, given to fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th grades last January, reports 51 percent of the juniors have gotten drunk and 30 percent are binge drinkers.

At least a third of all students said they had either driven or ridden in a car after drinking.

Of the freshmen who were surveyed, 27 percent said they had been drunk at least once and 58 percent said they had tried cigarettes.

"Alcohol, ladies and gentlemen, is a problem. Tobacco is a problem. These are gateway drugs," said Millie Andress, OPUSD’s director of special projects.

Juniors reported the highest tobacco use – 91 percent said they tried cigarettes or smokeless tobacco at least once.

Only 28 percent thought tobacco to be extremely harmful.

More than 80 percent of the 11th graders described alcohol and marijuana as easy to obtain. Two-thirds of ninth graders said alcohol was easy to obtain and 40 percent felt the same way about pot.

"The perception that alcohol and marijuana are easy to obtain and that it may be obtained on school property will lead the Safe Kids Task Force to look for ways to change that statistic," Superintendent Marilyn Lippiatt said in her report to the Oak Park Board of Education.

The survey also said students in ninth and 11th grades reported "significant amounts of stress." Students reported that they felt depressed for at least two weeks in the past year.

Lippiatt said the survey could lead to health classes in all grades and extra counseling services in kindergarten through fifth grade.

OPUSD’s Safe Kids Task Force, formerly known as the Substance Abuse Task Force, has conducted three surveys since 1998.

This year was the first time fifth-graders were polled, but results haven’t been released.

The survey also addressed violence and safety, and almost all students gave their schools either a "very safe" or "safe" ranking.

The district recently finished work on its comprehensive school safety plans, a one-stop information source about safety policies and procedures.

The task force meets on the last Wednesday of every month at Oak View High School. It’s open to parents concerned about substance abuse among young people.

"The kids think [substance abuse] is a joke and that it’s fun," said Shawn Crane, an Oak Park parent. "They don’t understand they are becoming entrapped."

The Oak Park High Parent Faculty Club is hosting a parent workshop on Thurs., Oct. 5 to address the issues of teenage drinking. Leading the discussion will be Cary Quashen, director of Action Family Counseling Centers.