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By Patrick Tepoorten
Due to an e-mail glitch, the Rush
City School District did not receive its 2007 Minnesota Student Survey
results until last week.
As with its counterpart to the south,
the Rush City School District did not participate in the survey in
2004. Having participated in 2007 and in 2001 though, comparisons can
be made about behavioral changes over the last six years.
Unfortunately,
Rush City's 2001 student survey results are not broken out by gender,
so it is impossible to make trend comparisons by gender.
From the
first question, there have been some changes in Rush City. In 2001, not
a single high school student was recorded as liking school "very much."
In 2007, six percent of senior males and 19 percent of senior females
did report the most positive experience.
For ninth-grade
students though, the trend has been negative, with 23 percent of boys
and 10 percent of girls reporting they "hate" school, up from a total
of eight percent combined in 2001.
Rush City has seen significant
improvements in how students believe their teachers view them. Asked
what percentage of teachers "show respect for students," 24 percent of
ninth-grade boys and 29 percent of ninth-grade girls responded "all."
The numbers were similar for seniors, and significantly higher for
sixth-grade students. Those responses show a distinct increase since
2001, when only five percent of ninth- and twelfth-grade students felt
that way.
As for plans after high school, 85 to 90 percent of
ninth-grade students report a desire to go to college. 65 percent of
senior boys and 85 percent of senior girls report the same. The numbers
are up for twelfth-grade students, who reported the same at a rate of
74 percent, as a whole, in 2001.
Questions about bullying at
school were asked differently from 2001 to 2007, but the latest survey
shows that 11 percent of sixth- and ninth-grade boys are teased or
excluded several times a week. Sixth-grade girls report the same at a
rate of 14 percent. Eleven percent of ninth-grade boys report it
happens to them "every day." Reports of such incidents drop off
significantly in high school.
Both ninth- and twelfth-grade girls
reported in high numbers in 2007, 47 percent and 41 percent
respectively, that alcohol use by "any family member repeatedly caused
family, health, job, or legal problems." The percentages in Rush City
are slightly more than twice the state average.
In 2001, 100
percent of twelfth-grade students answered no to the question "Have you
ever been the victim of violence on a date." In the latest survey,
responding to a similar question, asking if they'd ever been forced to
have sex or do something sexual, ninth- and twelfth-grade students
reported "no" in the mid-90s, except for senior girls, of which 19
percent now say "yes." The state average for the question was 12
percent.
Students are wearing seat belts in much higher numbers
than six years ago, with 49 percent of senior boys and 81 percent of
senior girls reporting they always wear a belt when they drive. In
2001, only 38 percent of the whole said the same. Those reporting they
wear belts as passengers is up as well.
Something that hasn't
changed is where students report learning about alcohol and sex, with
the majority of ninth- and twelfth-graders reporting they get most of
their information from friends or peers.
Thirty four percent of
senior girls reported thinking about suicide in the last year or
before, slightly higher than the state average of 32 percent. Since
boys and girls are combined in the 2001 results, it is difficult to see
a trend, but, as a class, seniors answered "yes" to the same question
at a rate of 43 percent.
Nine percent of senior boys reported
carrying a firearm to school at least six times in the last 30 days,
and another six percent reported doing so from two to five days in the
last 30. In 2001, not a single student in any grade reported the
carrying of guns to school. The state average for senior boys carrying
guns to school more than six of the last 30 days is two percent.
Tobacco
use and binge drinking appear to be up in seniors. Forty six percent of
boys and 30 percent of girls report using tobacco frequently in the
last 30 days. The senior class reported the same at a rate of 29
percent in 2001. Only 15 percent of ninth- and twelfth-grade students
reported binge drinking (six or more drinks at a time and drinking on
over 10 occasion in a year) in 2001. While ninth-grade figures appear
to have remained flat, 43 percent of senior boys report and 26 percent
of senior girls report "yes" to the question.
Fifty one percent
of senior boys reported using both alcohol and drugs in the last year.
There were no results listed for senior girls in this category. 27
percent of senior boys reported drinking or using drugs and driving
three times or more in the last year. Fifteen percent also reported
using marijuana or hashish from 20 to 30 days over the last month. That
figure is well above the state average of seven percent.
Regarding
sexual behavior, 81 percent of senior girls and 63 percent of senior
boys reported having sexual intercourse three times or more in the last
year. As a comparison, 58 percent of all seniors reported the same in
2001. Both reported much higher than state averages in 2007, which were
38 percent for boys and 42 percent for girls.
Along the same
lines, 11 percent of senior boys reported having gotten someone
pregnant at some point in the past. Only five percent of the entire
senior class reported having impregnated someone or having been
pregnant, in 2001.
While 78 percent of senior girls, and 48
percent of senior boys (those who reported being sexually active)
report using a birth control method "always," 28 percent of boys and 43
percent of girls report using condoms "never, rarely, or sometimes."
Almost half of the senior respondents reported they did not use a
condom the last time they engaged in sexual intercourse.
In both
2001 and 2007, a majority of ninth- and twelfth-grade students noted
they were not sexually active because one or both parents would object.
According
to Superintendent Vern Koepp, the district intends to study the results
carefully, but he did not know when, or if, the results would be
presented to the school board.
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