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The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

The Student News Site of Palo Alto High School

The Paly Voice

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Survey reveals drug/alcohol use at Paly

"I don’t believe it," junior Marian Sayer said, looking at a poster stating that nine out of 10 Paly students don’t drink during a typical week.

Many Paly students agree with Sayer, finding this data to be surprising. "It just doesn’t seem possible," Sayer said.

The data for the poster comes from the "MOST of Us" Youth Web Survey, administered to students in February 2004 during classes. A community wide task force initiated to deal with drug and alcohol use sponsored the survey. According to the group’s key findings document, out of a pool of 1648 students, 1362 were surveyed. 1230 of the surveys were valid, representing 75% of the student body.

The survey measured the behavior, perceptions, and attitudes of youth concerning alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. The data found was used to determine differences, if any, between perceptions and behavior.

And there were. The data released in the key findings document showed that the majority of the norms were only accurately perceived by less than 30% of the student body. However, while 90% of students don’t consume alcohol in a typical week, 59% of students accurately perceived this as the norm.

The idea of social norms comes from the Montana Social Norms Project based at Montana State University. Social norms are how students perceive behavior of their peers. The "MOST of Us" campaign is a research project which studies these perceptions and gets the word out that what the students perceive is not true.

The number of incidents every year related to drug and alcohol use at Paly and Gunn High Schools prompted the concern.
"When I was a principal here, in 1984, I chaperoned a dance and I knew that many kids came to the dances drunk," Paly principal Sandra Pearson said. "But at this particular dance, by the time the kids got in, the gym wreaked of alcohol and you could smell it everywhere. That’s when I knew we had a problem," Pearson said.

"We had athletic contracts, which student athletes would sign, saying they wouldn’t drink. However, over the years, other priorities came up, and the issue was dropped," Pearson said.

Tobacco, alcohol, as well as the role parents and peers play in drug and alcohol choices, was questioned in the survey. The data found that 77% of Paly students feel that tobacco use is never a good thing and 78% do not use tobacco. Sixty-one percent of Paly students would rather not drink when they are hanging out with their friends, and 92% of Paly students disapprove or strongly disapprove of their friends driving a vehicle while impaired by alcohol or being driven by a driver impaired by alcohol. Sixty-nine percent of students don’t use marijuana, and more than 90% of students do not use other drugs such as sedatives, designer drugs, and over the counter drugs. While 49% of students have said that their parents have discussed family rules regarding drugs and alcohol with them, 71% say that parents should set down rules about drug and alcohol use.

Many are concerned that the statements released are only positive. "We need to focus on the positive," said Becky Beacom, manager of Health Education at PAMF, "We can’t send the wrong message."

Many administrators say that the survey results were not surprising and were as they expected. "We’re comfortable with the data," Gunn principal Scott Lawrence said. "It didn’t come as a surprise because of what we see and hear around campus."
Contrary to the reaction of the administration, the student body was highly surprised. "I think everyone lied on the survey," junior Ranjana Iyengar said. "The results are too low. Everyone lied so that Palo Alto can keep its image of perfection. Everyone knows who goes to the parties on Friday night and we always hear about who got drunk and what happened."

Rebecca Stolpa, a Paly parent and member of the drug/Alcohol Task Force said her daughter had the same reaction to the results. "She told me that it was untrue," Stolpa said. "So I asked her if she lied on the survey, and she said she didn’t. Then I asked her if her friends lied, and she said no."

The administration believes that when adolescents lie, they tend to exaggerate the situation, which would mean that the data results would be higher. In this case, they are lower.

"It’s great that we now have this data," Stolpa said. "It’s a new tool in our toolkit," Stolpa said. "I’m tired of hearing about all this negative press, especially towards teenagers. This data helps relieve those misconceptions. Everyone thinks there is so much use, but in reality, there’s some but not much. Perceptions influence behavior."

Paly student activities director Joann Vaars is going to use the data as a tool "Now that I have this data, ten percent I can work with," Vaars said. "I know who they are, or I can use the tools I already have to find out."

Positive efforts on many university campuses to reduce alcohol use have resulted in programs being created to deal with that issue. "When our first son came back from college, he told us that there wasn’t that much use," Stolpa said. "We were surprised because we had perceived that there was a lot of use."

"High schoolers perceive that there is rampant drinking on college campuses, but the norm is that there is much less," Beacom said. "We hope there will be a trickle down effect, so that there will be less use in high school and that will filter down to the middle schools. Our focus now is on how we can all be a part of the effort to reduce use, parents as well as the local community," Beacom said.

"We’re going to get out the information to let parents know what to watch out for and how they can deal with it," Adolescent Counseling Services director Sue Barkhurst said," as well as incorporate the data in conversations we have with students."
Debrah Kurland, a concerned parent said, "The community and press play a big role in changing the social norms, it’s like changing a culture. If it’s a community wide effort, the possibilities are endless."

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