THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406100260
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE STAUNTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: Long
More of them - compared to others across the region - are registered to vote, attend church often and would work at a low-paying public service job to help repay a college loan.
{REST} Growing numbers also are planning to attend college, although few want to hang around Hampton Roads after they graduate.
But according to a recent poll of local seniors, high school life in Western Tidewater hasn't been all rosy.
Since they've been in school, seniors said, the use of drugs and/or alcohol has increased among people they knew. Nearly a quarter reported using marijuana themselves.
And nearly 60 percent of the students said they knew of a classmate who had carried a gun to school or a school-sponsored event.
They struggle over the abortion issue, too. A little more than a quarter of those surveyed said abortion should be banned or restricted.
Those are some of the results of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star's third annual survey of high school seniors.
Earlier this spring, the newspapers surveyed 558 seniors graduating from public and private schools in Virginia and coastal North Carolina.
In Western Tidewater, 82 students of 909 in the class of 1994 were polled. Local seniors answered questions on a number of issues, ranging from alcohol and drug use to sex, guns in school and racial relations.
Forty percent were female and 60 percent were male; 76 percent were white; 21 percent were black; and about 3 percent were from other ethnic groups.
The margin of error for the regional poll is 4.4 percent.
Here's a look at what the class of 1994 is thinking about:
PLANS
In Western Tidewater, nearly six out of seven seniors polled said they planned to go to college. That percentage is about 7 percent higher than the regional sample. It's also up from 80 percent last year and 70 percent in 1992.
Only four students, including Southampton High senior Shawn Garris, said they would enlist in the military.
Garris, 19, is headed for the Marines. He plans to someday work as a computer engineer. He knows only one other student in his school who is planning a military career. Why so few others have chosen that route, he doesn't know.
``I feel that the Marines can help me grow up and everything,'' Garris said. ``I've liked the Marines since I was young.''
In Western Tidewater, 27 percent of the seniors will push college costs on to Mom and Dad, but 28 percent are banking on grants or scholarships.
``College is so expensive . . . those are the only ways most people can really afford to go,'' said Robert Jones, a Lakeland High School senior who is headed for the University of Virginia this fall.
On a different note, 1994 graduates don't really like where they live. More than half said they won't stay in Hampton Roads after graduation from high school or college.
``It just seems like your only real choices between jobs are from the shipyard or the naval base,'' Garris said.
More seniors - 31 percent - rated the quality of their high school education as being fair or poor, up from 22 percent last year.
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL
Twenty-four percent of Western Tidewater students reported having used marijuana, compared with 18 percent in the survey at large.
Thirty-nine percent said they didn't drink alcohol, down from a reported 65 percent last year.
``I think it's due to stress and the fact that everybody seems to be doing it,'' said 18-year-old Cliff DeGraw, referring to an apparent increase in the use of alcohol and other drugs among local teens.
GUNS AND VIOLENCE
All but about 7 percent of the seniors said they felt safe all or most of the time in school, up from 86 percent last year.
But more Western Tidewater students - compared to others in the region - said they knew of a classmate who had brought a gun to school or a school-sponsored social event.
About 60 percent of the students answered yes to that question, compared with 55 percent in the survey at large.
RACIAL RELATIONS
Students were torn over the issue of racial relations. About 40 percent said racial relations had remained unchanged since they began school.
Nearly a third said relations had worsened, and the rest of the students said things had improved.
DeGraw, a white student at Nansemond River, was among those who said racial relations certainly could be better.
``I'm not sure what has caused things to get worse over the years,'' he said. ``I guess nobody is really making an effort.''
AIDS EDUCATION AND SEX
According to the survey, 72 percent of Western Tidewater students said they had learned enough in school about the virus that causes AIDS to protect themselves.
But 28 percent of the seniors said school didn't teach them enough, up slightly from last year.
And while Family Life Education lessons typically stress abstinence, less than 1.5 percent of the students said AIDS had persuaded them to not have sex. That's down from 8 percent reported last year.
Instead, 43 percent are resorting to using protection to avoid the virus, up from 33 percent last year.
MOST AND LEAST
Dozens of students cited U.S. government and technology-related classes as those in which they learned the most.
Overall, they gave higher ratings to classes that, in some way, prepared them for ``the real world.''
A handful of couch potatoes complained about physical education classes.
Gym, one student wrote, serves ``no purpose. You should be fit only if you choose to do so.''
Said another: ``Gym is the least useful class. After we leave school, no one is going to force us to keep in shape.''
{KEYWORDS} SURVEY CLASS OF 1994 GRADUATION
by CNB