- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a million U.S. students took guns to school
in the last academic year, a survey reported Thursday. The figure actually
represents some good news, the survey's authors said, noting that the percentage
of students who say they carried guns to school has dropped in the last
five years, from six percent in 1993-94 to 3.8 percent in the school year
just ending.
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- More than a quarter -- 28.7 percent --
of American students in grades six through 12 used illicit drugs at least
once last academic year, a decline from the 30.1 percent who used drugs
in academic 1996-97, according to the private PRIDE survey. For purposes
of the survey, cigarettes and tobacco were considered as illicit drugs
along with cocaine and heroin. The latest academic year has seen deadly
shootings at schools from Pearl, Mississippi to Jonesboro, Arkansas and
Springfield, Oregon.
-
- ``Despite remarkable progress, drug use
is still at the third-highest level in 11 years,'' survey spokesman Doug
Hall said at a Capitol Hill briefing to announce the survey results. ''It
only takes one student, not a million, to create a national nightmare.''
-
- The survey, which has made annual studies
of U.S. school children for the last 11 years, gathered questionnaires
from 154,350 students aged 10 through 18. The survey found a connection
between participation in school activities and after-school programs and
a reduction in violent behavior and drug abuse.
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- Students who did not carry guns were
53 percent more likely to be involved in community-based after-school programs
and 34 percent more likely to participate in school activities like band
and team sports, according to the survey. The survey got support from Democratic
Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of
Iowa and Paul Coverdell of Georgia, all of whom stressed the need for parents
to talk with their children about drugs.
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- If parents are unavailable, after-school
programs become increasingly important in the fight against drugs and violent
conduct, Biden said at the briefing. Biden also called for a bipartisan
effort to fund these after-school programs. He said such an effort might
have better success than the tobacco bill that died in the Senate on Wednesday.
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