Middle schools see rise in drugs, violence

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

Nevada middle schoolers are reporting an increase in campus activities once believed reserved for high schools -- gang activity, threats of racially motivated violence and the availability of illegal drugs, a new survey shows.

Conducted every other year by the Nevada Education Department in cooperation with the state's Division of Adolescent School Health, the Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey asks students about sexual habits, alcohol and tobacco use and school safety.

Of the 2,278 middle schoolers surveyed statewide last spring:

This is only the second time the state has surveyed middle schoolers, said Robinette Bacon, school health education coordinator for the Education Department. High schoolers have been surveyed since 1988. Those surveys have helped spur programs to try to decrease the numbers of students who attempt suicide, have unprotected sex and use alcohol and tobacco products.

"We don't have the same breadth of data at the middle school that we have for the high schools, but we do realize there's been some slippage since the 2001 numbers," Bacon said. "We will be using the results in our discussions of how we can do a better job getting the messages out to students."

Results for the Clark County School District were not yet available, but district officials said they were anticipating similar findings.

"We're seeing the problems start younger and younger," said Elliot Phelps, chief of the Clark County School District Police, said Monday. "That's why middle schools are such an important focus area for us right now."

Phelps said there has been a gradual increase in gang activity on middle school campuses -- not necessarily crime, such as fights or extortion, but students sporting gang-affiliated apparel and tattoos. At the high school level most students simply want to graduate and know not to attract undue attention to themselves, Phelps said.

The number of high school students statewide who said they had ever belonged to a gang declined in this year's survey, down to 13.1 percent from 14.3 percent in 2001.

"We need to interrupt the cycle at the middle school level to keep those numbers going down," Phelps said.

Using federal grant money Phelps has been gradually adding safety officers to middle school campuses. The goal is to both deter illicit activity and provide students with a resource to go to for help, Phelps said.

"The ages of 12 to 14 are a very fragile time for kids," said Sedway Middle School Principal Evans Rutledge. "It's the time that they really start making definite decisions about what kind of person they want to be."

Sedway, along with five other elementary, middle and high school campuses, are working on a $9 million, three-year pilot study known as Safe Schools, Health Students, Rutledge said. The project, three years in the making, will identify students who need mental health and psychological services as well as outreach programs for families. Students will be tracked from elementary through high school, Rutledge said.

"Unless we make resources available for all aspects of a student's life just trying to educate them isn't enough," Rutledge said. "We need to reach into their homes and their communities, we need to offer programs to the adults to help them become better parents. There needs to be involvement at every level."

Earlier this year Rutledge sent nearly 100 students home after they showed up in matching shirts and jeans -- against his express orders. While students said the attire was nothing more than a show of solidarity for a fellow student who had been picked on in a fight, Rutledge said he has been firm on quelling any behavior that even hints at gang activity.

"At this age, probably more than any other, kids are trying to decide who they are and what kind of person they want to be," Rutledge said. "There is tremendous peer pressure to conform, as well as influences of the video games, television shows and movies they see every day."

What middle schoolers are looking for is acceptance, said Dr. Frederick Gillis, a psychologist who practiced in Nevada for 25 years and is now executive director of the Center for Independent Living, a treatment program for troubled children.

For students who lack the social skills or athletic prowess that leads to popularity, a gang can provide a sense of security, Gillis said. The Clark County School District's population of non-native English speakers continues to grow, which means more students that will likely have trouble integrating, Gillis said.

"It's a key time in adolescence," Gillis said. "A lot of the children we work with get into trouble for the first time in sixth or seventh grade."

Complicating matters is the size of the district, where the average middle school enrollment tops 1,300, Gillis said.

"A kid who is a late bloomer can get lost in the shuffle," Gillis said. "It can be very difficult for schools to keep track of kids who are the most at risk."

There was some good news in the survey -- 26.9 middle schoolers said they rarely or never felt safe at school, down from 29.5 percent in 2001. The number of students who said they skipped at least one day of school because of safety fears also declined, to 10.9 percent from 12.8 percent in 2001. Reports of being threatened or injured by someone with a weapon on campus dropped to 7.8 percent from 9 percent in 2001.

Parents must give their permission for participation in the survey and the results are used by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop a national profile. State officials use the survey to gauge the effectiveness of educational programs.