Board of Education reviews PRIDE survey, ALL IN conference

Each year, Mountain Brook students, along with students across the country, are encouraged to take the PRIDE survey, which is an anonymous survey given to high school students to learn more about habits within teenagers. During a Board of Education Meeting on Nov. 14, Dr. Dale Wisely reviewed the results with board members. 

Given in September of this year, the first portion of the survey looked at alcohol use within grades 9 through 12. While the freshmen were the class with the lowest percentage involved in drinking, there was an upward trend to the senior class. Alcohol use, meaning more than one drink, was present in nearly 50 percent of seniors within the past year, and of those students 47% of them took part in binge drinking either seldomly, sometimes or often.

"It doesn't happen on our watch very much," said Wisely. "Drinking is going on at friends houses and at the all mysterious "other" location." Comparatively, juniors who drink sit at about 6 percent above the national average for their grade and seniors are nearly 15 percent above the national average for their age range. He also noted that teen drinking seems to be more of a weekend activity and that there has been an increase of females drinking in high school.

Over the years however, Mountain Brook has seen a 20 percent reduction in it's drinking rates. "That data really allows us to say, 'Not everybody drinks in school, so you don't have to,'" said Superintendent Dr. Dicky Barlow. "That's encouraging."

A second part of the survey looked at drug abuse within high school students, particularly marijuana. "Now this actually surprises some people," said Wisely, pointing out that 1.3 percent of freshmen, 3.7 percent of sophomores, 9.8 percent of juniors and 14.5 percent of seniors have used marijuana within the past month. These numbers fall at least 6 percent below the national average. Abuse of prescription drugs also sits below the national average, although it is within 3 percent. 

The board also reviewed the recent success of the ALL IN Mountain Brook conference that took place at the beginning of the month.