Student drinking and sex skyrocket in Duxbury

High school juniors survey shows risky behavior increasing at alarming rate

By ANNE TRAFTON
The Patriot Ledger
published May 13, 2004

DUXBURY - They come from families with a median income of more than $97,000 and live in half million dollar homes by the sea. Most score better-than-average on the SAT, and 95 percent will go to college.

In a town largely populated by highly educated, upper-middle-class families, Duxbury High School students are having sex, smoking marijuana and binge drinking at an alarming rate, a student survey shows.

Binge drinking has increased dramatically among Duxbury juniors, with 72 percent reporting consuming five or more drinks in a row the 30 days before taking the state Department of Education Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2003.

That number is up from 48 percent in 2001. It is also twice the state average of 36 percent. Duxbury was also well above the state average for marijuana smoking - 54 percent had smoked it in the 30 days before the survey, compared to 34 percent statewide.

Fifty-six percent of Duxbury juniors reported that they had had sexual intercourse, up from 32 percent in 2001. Of those, 80 percent said they used some method of birth control the last time they had sex.

Those survey results were released at last night’s school committee meeting, which also featured a three-hour discussion of health-curriculum revisions that school officials hope will help reduce students’ risky behavior.

School officials and parents agree that something needs to be done, but there is much debate over how the schools should teach students to avoid such behavior.

There is also a question of how much the schools can do, say officials, who point out that teenage drinking, drug use and sex are issues the larger community must also address.

“As much as we try to educate them, they’re continually being bombarded with a (media) message that there’s nothing wrong with sex, alcohol, drugs and violence,” school committee Chairman John Heinstadt said. “I’m not trying to abdicate responsibility, but to say the schools are going to solve this problem is a little bit unrealistic.”

During last night’s review of the health curriculum for grades 7 through 12, health and physical education coordinator Denise Makein said students receive no substance abuse education after eighth grade, unless they take an elective.

She recommended adding another required health course at the high school that would focus on substance abuse education.

High school principal John McCarthy said the school has already taken a very important step in hiring a substance abuse counselor, who will start this fall.

“We will begin to see some results from that over time,” he said.

Some parents suggested switching the health curriculum from the current “comprehensive health” model to one that focuses on “character development.”

Parent Kathy Bittrich, who served on the committee that reviewed the K-6 curriculum, said the character development model would emphasize development of virtues and would weave character-building through all aspects of the school curriculum.

She said she believes the current system focuses too much on teaching students about possible negative scenarios they could encounter, which she believes makes those situations more likely to occur.

However, health teacher Colleen Jones said the current classes already involve character building. Human sexuality courses, taught in eighth and ninth grade, include discussion of contraception methods, but “the teachers do everything they can to point the students back to abstinence,” Makein said.

The school committee plans to discuss the health curriculum issues again at its next meeting, May 26, and make a plan for how to deal with them. That will likely involve getting much more community input, Heinstadt said.

“We’re not going to solve this tonight,” he said.

Anne Trafton may be reached by clicking here.

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