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Monitoring the health of Sonoma’s students

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Sonoma Valley Sun

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, Student Services Director Nanci Mathison presented the results of the 2009-2010 California Healthy Kids survey. Overall, the findings were positive stating that a larger than usual percentage of Sonoma Valley students were not indulging in alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes.

The survey – given every other year – asks students in grades seven, nine and 11 a series of general, core questions to asses their knowledge/understanding of things like drugs, alcohol, grades, tobacco, physical health and more. There are also questions about their home lives, peers, school, community environment and what are called resilience traits, such as problem-solving and self-awareness. More specific questions pertaining to the frequency of drug and alcohol use, at-risk behaviors, cessation efforts and gang involvement are used to pinpoint problem areas while an separate section focuses on tobacco.

Compared with the previous survey’s results, the percentage of students that have used alcohol or others drugs at least once in their lives has decreased in all categories except for a slight increase in marijuana experimentation by seventh graders. Disturbingly, however, the percentage of seventh and 11th graders who feel that frequent use of alcohol and cigarettes is harmful has decreased. More ninth graders that previous felt that use of alcohol and cigarettes is harmful so perhaps more education at lower grades levels is a good idea.

In terms of violence and safety at school, just over three quarters of students feel safe at school. In the 11th grade, 22 percent of students have been harassed, 12 percent have been in a fight and 10 percent are afraid of being beaten up. Almost twice the number of seventh graders have been in a fight at 23 percent while 17 percent of seventh graders are afraid of being beaten up. Hormones perhaps, although the survey doesn’t distinguish between boys and girls.

Thankfully only a small percentage of students have carried a weapon with the findings at seven percent for seventh graders and nine percent for ninth and 11th graders. Even fewer students in each grade have carried a gun. Gang involvement has also dropped in ninth and 11th grades with nine percent in ninth grade and just five percent in 11th grade. The largest percentage can be found in seventh grade with 10 percent of students saying they had at one time belonged to a gang.

In terms of physical health, more than 60 percent of students in all grades are eating breakfast, however those totals have decreased since the last survey with the exception of ninth graders, where it has remained the same. Two elements not surveyed in either 2007 or 2009 were whether students are engaging in 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity each day and whether or not they are eating the recommended daily requirement of fruit and vegetables.

Honesty is one issue that is consistently raised is honesty of the answers given. WestEd, the company responsible for administering the survey, states that their long-term findings indicate that in anonymous and confidential surveys, there is a high degree of validity in student answers. The belief is that while some students under-report certain activities, others over-report, thus evening out the data.

The Sonoma Valley Unified School district has rolled out a shiny new web site, which they are still in the process of fine-tuning. If you are interested in viewing the full survey, the results will be posted on the web site under student services in short order. Your patience is requested by the district.




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