By Clara Atwell, Business Editor
The Healthy Youth survey is taken by students of all grades every other year and presents questions focusing on various factors of adolescent health in Washington state.
The fall 2016 survey surveyed 393 students. According to the survey, in the 30 days prior to being surveyed, 27 percent of students had drunk alcohol, 17 percent had smoked marijuana, nine percent had used prescription drugs that were not prescribed to them, seven percent had smoked cigarettes or used other vapor products, five percent had used Rx Painkillers, and seven percent had used drugs not mentioned above.
Although these percentages are lower than the state averages, they increased by an average of 2.5 percent from the 2014 data (not including marijuana usage, which stayed the same), which is approximately the equivalent of 10 more students per category.
According to Principal Danny Rock, the police began reporting recreational use of Xanax on the island in August 2016, and that fall is when the school began noticing use among students. Students’ use of Adderall, pain killers and recreational drugs like MDMA (molly) has also likely increased and gained popularity since the survey was taken last fall.
The introduction of vape products — especially juuls — has likely led to an increase of nicotine use. Juuls are small vaporizers that look similar to USB sticks, causing them not to look suspicious to teachers or parents. Juuls use pods that have the equivalent of about one pack of cigarettes worth of nicotine in them, and they come in flavors like mango, creme brulee, cool mint and fruit medley. Given the size and inconspicuous look of these products, many students who use them bring them to school and use them discretely in class or in the bathroom.
“I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that there are issues, and [as for the issue] … of using juuls and vape stuff, I think everybody is concerned about that,” Health teacher Kara Sears said.
The issue of students using at school or coming to school high puts many teachers in a tough situation.
“If you’re a teacher and you suspect something, it’s a hard place to be in,” Sears said. “It’s not comfortable, and there are other people around, and you want to respect that person’s confidentiality, but you also want to keep them safe.”
Nicotine products don’t give students a high, making it so there is no way for a staff member to detect if a student has just used one. Even if a student has been using other kinds of drugs, it can still be extremely difficult to tell if a student is high or is just having an off day.
“It’s hard to recognize [if a student is under the influence],” Sears said. “That might sound crazy to some. I mean, sometimes in my experience, it’s been really obvious, … [and] other times you think, ‘gosh, they are acting really funny. Maybe they’re not sober, [or] maybe they are having a weird day.’”
Rock and Assistant Principal Alanah Baron are the first responders to any incident of suspected drug use or misbehavior. Rock finds that when they respond to a report that a student is under the influence of some kind of drug, more often than not, the report ends up being inaccurate, even though the student who sent in the report often maintains their perception that that other student is using at school or may tell other students about what they suspect before they are told their report is inaccurate.
This worries Rock, partially because it leads students to believe that more students are using than the actual number, and also because he is not sure how close this student perception is to reality.
“We have students who are willing to use while they’re at school, or come to school while they’re affected or under the influence, and some of those students get caught some of the time, [yet] other students don’t,” Rock said. “I wonder because either students are right and there’s tremendously more [drug] use going on than is being caught, reported, or observed, or it’s somewhere in between, or it’s right where people are reporting it at.”
Rock credits a big part of the drug problem at the high school to student anxiety and depression levels being above state average, since both have been scientifically proven to influence drug use. This is one of the reasons that the high school has dedicated so many resources to counseling services, including a prevention and intervention specialist and a mental health counselor through NeighborCare.
Although Sears believes that drug use is often a coping method, she also believes that peer pressure and the emotional responses of the developing brain play a large role in a student’s choice to use.
“I don’t think you can ignore that peer pressure is real,” Sears said. “I think also a big part that you can’t ignore is where the teen brain is right now.”
In the teenage brain, the amygdala — or the part of the brain that reacts to emotions — is still developing, which has been proven to be the reason teens react so emotionally to many things.
“Teens really feel their feelings,” Sears said. “When they are feeling these strong feelings, whether it is stress, curiosity, or peer pressure … I think that they are driven by those feelings a lot, instead of that thinking, judging, reasoning part of the brain.”
Sears believes that if a student is getting away with using at school, they will continue using at school, similar to if they are getting away with using at home or any other place. She thinks that teachers need to continue having conversations around what to do about drug and alcohol usage, even though they will likely never fully solve the problem.
According to Sears, having a range of counselors on staff has helped open up the conversation. Both Sears and Rock agree that no staff member will turn a blind eye to the problem.
“I don’t have complacent or nonchalant staff who don’t think [substance use] is a big deal,” Rock said.