Report shows number of students who drink

In the past 30 days 42 percent of high school seniors and 24 percent of 10th-graders have consumed an alcoholic beverage.

More than 71 percent of high school seniors have drank alcohol in the past year, while about 13 percent of sixth-graders have.

Those numbers come from the Nebraska Risk and Protective Factor Student Survey for 2007 of 8,308 students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades in Dodge, Washington, Douglas, Sarpy and Cass counties. The survey was conducted by Behavioral Health Region 6 and data includes Fremont Public Schools and many other districts, but not Omaha Public Schools.

Students take the survey in each of the grades and the results are compared over the educational career.

"The good news on alcohol is every time the survey is given, the numbers go down," said Angie Halstead, school social worker for FPS during Thursday’s Project Extra Mile meeting. "The 30-day numbers are starting to decline."

While 42 percent of high school seniors in the region reported drinking in the past 30 days last year, nearly 49 percent of seniors reported the same thing in 2005.

For binge drinking, which is five or more drinks in one sitting, 26 percent of seniors in the region reported doing it versus more than 32 percent in 2005.

"Twenty-six percent of 12th-graders consider themselves binge drinkers," Halstead said. "That’s a lot."

According to the survey, most students who did admit to drinking also said someone they knew purchased the alcohol for them. More than half of seniors reported that they drank in their own home while nearly 88 percent admitted to drinking at a friend’s home during the past year.

"For a large part of them, it’s at somebody else’s home," Halstead said.

More than 54 percent of sixth-graders reported they drank at home during the past year versus about 25 percent who reported drinking at a friend’s home. Just 59 out of 1,236 sixth-graders polled admitted to drinking in the past year.

"We have a curriculum at the sixth grade level called Project Alert," Halstead said.

She credits that 14-week alcohol and drug prevention class for the lower numbers for sixth-graders.

More than 47 percent of students reported that the last time they consumed alcohol there was an adult present.

"What we knew all along is true, the alcohol is coming from adults," said Chassity Bassett, project coordinator for Project Extra Mile in Dodge, Saunders and Washington counties.

She did say that some results were encouraging.

"We were excited to see there were decreases in categories," Bassett said. "It shows that community involvement has worked."

It’s not surprising, she said, that the numbers of students who drink is high.

"It’s going to represent that (Nebraska) is seventh in the nation for high school binge drinking and fifth in the nation for the costs of underage drinking," Bassett said. "The numbers validate those statistics."

She’s also not surprised at the number of younger students who admitted to drinking.

"Over the past few years the research has been telling us that the first drink is getting younger and younger," Bassett said. "It’s never too soon to have that conversation with your children."

For parents who want to get involved and work to stop underage drinking, she suggested attending monthly Dodge County Coalition meetings for Project Extra Mile. They are held at 10 a.m. on the second Thursday of every month at the Anderson conference room at Midland Lutheran College. At the meetings, ways to change the environment that allows for underage drinking are discussed.

As for the survey, both women said it’s a good tool to measure underage drinking. It also has ways of detecting truthfulness in answers and surveys deemed not truthful are thrown out.

"It’s a very good instrument," Halstead said. "It was specifically designed for Nebraska."

A report specific to Fremont Public Schools is expected to be released soon.