School survey yields 'scary' results

By: Mac Mclean | TriCities.com
Published: January 06, 2009

BY MAC McLEAN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Almost a third of Sullivan County’s middle-school students say they may have gotten into a car with a drunk driver.
According to the survey, 32.2 percent of boys and 27.2 percent of girls in the county school system’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes were driven at some point by someone who was drinking.
“This is a serious health issue,” said Meredith Charles, director of the school system’s coordinated school health department. “These are our middle-school students. It’s a wonder they ever make it to school in the first place,” she said.
Charles asked about 95 percent of middle-school students 46 questions designed to identify risky behavior. She reported the results Monday to the Sullivan County Board of Education.
The survey found that 75.7 percent of students said they don’t wear a helmet when they ride a bike, and another 37 percent watch more than three hours of TV each day.
Almost 30 percent – 28.9 percent of boys and 25.3 percent of girls – said they have had at least one drink of alcohol and of those who said “yes” to this question, 40.2 percent had their first drink before their 11th birthday.
Another 17.6 percent of students said they have “seriously thought about killing themselves,” while 49.9 percent, 59.8 percent of girls and 37.6 percent of boys, said they are trying to lose weight.
“Some of that stuff’s pretty scary,” board Chairman Ron Smith said after Charles’ presentation. “We know what these kids say, now the question is, what are we going to do about this?”
Although Sullivan County’s survey results were comparable to other school systems in the region, Charles said she’s been trying to work special lessons that address these behaviors into the county’s health classes.
She hopes to conduct a survey during the next school year to gauge whether these lessons have any effect.
That upcoming school year will start one week later, according to a new calendar the board adopted Monday night. The 2009-2010 school year will start with a half day for students on Aug. 4 and end on May 24, 2010.
Board members also agreed to make fixing the roof at Central High School a priority for the school system’s maintenance budget this year because it is leaking in four classrooms and some of the building’s hallways, said Maintenance Supervisor Joe Mike Akard.
Twenty-one of the county’s 28 school buildings received a failing grade when it came to the condition of their roofs, according to a physical assessment the school system conducted last spring. Smith said the results of this assessment will be the main topic of a school board retreat set to take place Sunday at Northeast State Technical Community College.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518

School survey yields 'scary' results

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