THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406110087
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: Medium
That is according to The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star's third annual survey of graduating 12th-graders.
{REST} The survey questioned students on their views on topics such as abortion, drugs and race relations and involved 558 students from public and private schools in Hampton Roads, Western Tidewater, the Eastern Shore and northeastern North Carolina.
About one-fifth of those polled were from Chesapeake schools. The margin of error on the regional survey is 4.4 percent.
Seventy-eight percent of the students polled said they'll attend a 2- or 4-year college, but only about half plan to stay in the area after graduation. Meanwhile, 26 percent say they are counting on the bank or mom and dad to pay tuition bills.
Sherry Whiting of Indian River High School, however, will rely on loans to get her through Virginia Wesleyan College.
The 17-year-old plans to stay in the area and study pre-law in college. Like 67 percent of her peers, she expects to reach a higher standard of living than her parents.
Sherry said she attends church regularly and does not drink alcohol, but she and 71 percent of the students polled say they believe drug and alcohol use has increased among people they know.
Toya Taylor, 17, of Western Branch High School, estimates that about 80 percent of the young people she knows have tried marijuana or are still using the drug, which she says is readily available.
It's not all that hard to get many other things either, Toya said.
``I know a lot of people who have guns,'' she said. ``You can buy a gun anywhere.'' Toya's not the only one that thinks so - 55 percent of the students polled said they've known of a student or students that have carried guns to school or social activities such as dances and football games.
How do they get them?
``All you have to do is let the word out that you want one, and they find you,'' Toya said. ``It's really easy. It's really easy. . . a gun, drugs - anything. You can have it the next day.''
Still, most of the students surveyed say that they feel safe at school.
Toya, who's headed for Old Dominion University in the fall, said she feels safe at school most of the time. But the one thing that bothers her more and more is race relations.
Surprisingly, after recent efforts to make school more multi-cultural, 70 percent of the students said they don't feel that race relations are getting any better, and 34 percent say they are worse.
Lack of communication and diminishing opportunities for class discussion are things Toya blames for the worsening relations. ``I think that it's gotten worse in general because it used to be a headline topic. When my parents were growing up people were always talking about busing and things like that. So you knew right out how everybody felt,'' she said. ``Now people disguise their real feelings. . . I think we stopped dealing with it openly. By stopping, the fire was allowed to grow.''
Although almost three-quarters of the students said they have a close friend of a different race, 38 percent of the students said they have never and would never date someone of another race.
But if they were to get involved with someone, many students said that the AIDS epidemic has convinced them to abstain from having sex or to use protection. Almost a third said that they've always been cautious when it comes to sex, and most believe that they've learned enough about the disease from school to protect themselves.
{KEYWORDS} SURVEY CLASS OF 1994 GRADUATION
by CNB