WASHINGTON, DC — Eleven million high school students (80 percent) and five million middle school students (44 percent) attend drug-infested schools, meaning that they have personally witnessed illegal drug use, illegal drug dealing, illegal drug possession, students drunk and/or students high on the grounds of their school according to the “National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII: Teens and Parents,� the twelfth annual back-to-school survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
For the first time, this year CASA sought to survey in depth the drug situation in America’s schools. The survey revealed that at least once a week on their school grounds, 31 percent of high school students (more than four million) and nine percent of middle school students (more than one million) see illegal drugs used, sold, students high and/or students drunk. At least weekly, 17 percent of all high and middle school students (4.4 million) personally see classmates high on drugs at school.
“This fall more than 16 million teens will return to middle and high schools where drug dealing, possession, use and students high on alcohol or drugs are part of the fabric of their school,� said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “Too many of our nation’s high and middle schools have become marijuana marts and pill palaces. Parents should wake up to this reality and realize more likely than not, your teen is going to school each day in a building where drug use, sale and possession is as much a part of the curriculum as math or English and do something about it. For many of our middle and high school students, school days have become school daze.�
The CASA survey also found that since 2002 the proportion of students who attend schools where drugs are used, kept or sold has jumped 39 percent forhigh school students and 63 percent for middle school students. From 2006 to 2007, the proportion jumped 20 percent for high school students and 35 percent for middle school students. Other numbers:

• Compared to teens at drug-free schools, teens at drug-infested schools are:

— 16 times likelier to use an illegal drug other than marijuana or prescription drugs;

— 15 times likelier to abuse prescription drugs;

— six times likelier to get drunk at least monthly;

— five times likelier to use marijuana;

— four times likelier to smoke cigarettes;

— four times likelier to be able to buy marijuana within a day; and

— nearly six times likelier to be able to buy marijuana within an hour.

I volunteered for the program five or six years ago. At the time we were facing behavior problems with both sons – something I attributed to my eldest’s frustration with dyslexia, some parental inconsistency in enforcing consequences, and my youngest son aping his big brother’s behavior.

At weekly sessions over a couple of months, we talked about communicating clearly with our children and doing it without dragging in our own fatigue and frustration. We critiqued film clips of bad parenting performances – some of which seemed uncomfortably familiar – and viewed clips of more constructive methods.

Also interesting were sessions to help kids cope with peer pressure to smoke, drink, and do drugs. It’s certainly not foolproof, but it seems to me that a kid who has a ready and convincing response is better prepared to deal with these unwanted invitations. It was a good, diverse group of parents and soon we were sharing eye-rolling misadventures of our children.

The periodic surveys are designed to learn whether the program actually works: whether it has any affect on parents’ and children’s behavior; and if it results in less cigarette, alcohol and drug use.

To keep parents honest on the multiple-choice questionnaire, one child from each family gets fill out the quiz, too. Now that’s one test booklet I would have loved to swipe.