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Middle school is a scary place for a significant number of Charlotte-Mecklenburg students, while high-school students are less likely to report fear and bullying at school, a just-released survey of youth risk behaviors shows.
Every two years, health officials poll students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools about violence, bullying, drinking, drugs, depression and other activities that put them at risk. The 2009 survey was the third given in high schools, and some positive trends emerged: drops in binge drinking, cigarette smoking, weapon carrying and early sexual activity.
CMS middle-schoolers started taking a more limited version of the survey (for instance, they aren’t asked about sex) in 2007. Many of those numbers went up in 2009. For instance, 39 percent said they’d been harassed or bullied on school property, up from 26 percent two years earlier. One in 10 said they’d skipped school in the past month because they felt unsafe, more than double the rate two years before.
Significant minorities of middle and high-school students reported serious depression and suicidal thoughts. Among high school students, 14 percent said they’d attempted suicide in the past year.
Dr. Kristin Rager, medical director of Charlotte’s Teen Health Connection, said the results should remind adults that teens need a lot of guidance to avoid mistakes that can change the course of their lives: “The teen brain is not equal to an adult brain, yet teens are faced with making adult decisions.”
Among the encouraging findings: At least 85 percent of students at both levels say their parents set clear standards for behavior, and strong majorities say they have teachers or other adults they can talk to.
Officials from CMS and Mecklenburg health agencies released the survey results today, saying they use the information to try to keep young people healthier and safer. Other schools around the nation also do the survey, but state and national tallies aren’t yet available for comparison.
Grayce Crockett, director of Mecklenburg Area Mental Health, said it’s sad but not surprising to see numbers on depression and suicide holding steady or inching up, despite efforts to let students and families know there’s help available.
“The economy plays a role in that,” she said. “When students see that their parents are stressed, they will often mirror that emotion.”
Twenty-eight percent of high school students and 23 percent of middle-schoolers reported sad, hopeless feelings that lasted at least two weeks and interfered with their activities. Twenty percent of middle-schoolers and 14 percent of high-schoolers said they’d seriously considered suicide.
