THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406230168
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 49 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SHERRI LAROWE, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: 940626 LENGTH: Long
This is how they see their future: A huge majority is going on to college, they plan to make more bucks than their parents - but many won't be doing it around here.
{REST} That's the mixed news in a survey conducted by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star of more than 550 graduating high school seniors, including students in northeast North Carolina.
Seniors answered questions about future plans, quality of education, and issues of the day. They didn't hold back.
PLANS
Seventy percent of local seniors surveyed said they were headed to a two- or four-year college. That's eight percentage points lower than the total sample. But more young Tarheels plan to join the military than Virginia seniors, according to the survey - 20 percent said they will join the military compared to 8 percent in the total survey.
Emily Speer, 18, of Currituck High hasn't decided whether she will go to college or take a managerial position at a local grocery store. But lots of her friends are planning on ``furthering education through the military with hands-on education,'' she said.
They believe they will get a better education by doing the work instead of just studying about it, Speer added.
More than half of local students surveyed, 67 percent, said they plan to eventually settle outside of the area. But Becky Peaden, 18, of Currituck High doesn't buy that.
``I think it's just an expectation,'' the Campbell University-bound senior said. ``They don't really move out.''
She added that there are few options in Currituck for active teenagers. ``For fun, teens go to Elizabeth City and Virginia,'' she said. ``There's absolutely nothing to do here, unless it's school stuff.''
DRUG USE
Maybe the perception of a lack of activities explains why students report more incidence of drinking and drug use here than in the total survey. Or maybe students here are just more honest about it.
Eighty percent of local students reported that the use of drugs and alcohol has increased among people they know since they entered high school. Seniors say they have used marijuana only slightly less than the total sample - 16 percent versus 18 percent. Drinking was slightly higher here than for all students polled.
``In the local area, being that there is hardly anything to do, that is pretty much what people do to get away,'' Speer said.
GUNS AND SCHOOL VIOLENCE
Surveys were distributed just after an incident at Currituck High SURVEY RESULTS/ Page 52 involving racism and weapons. After racial slurs were exchanged at school, Peaden said students started threatening to arm themselves. Racist graffiti, police searches of lockers and one drive-by shooting in the area followed.
Peaden's mother made her stay home on the day major racial action was rumored to be planned. Things have calmed down at Currituck since then, but of the Carolina seniors, 76 percent said they knew students who came to school or to a school-sponsored social function armed. In the regional statistics, only 55 percent said they knew people who had brought firearms to school functions.
Despite these high numbers, North Carolina students generally felt safe in their place of learning. Eighty-five percent said they felt completely or mostly safe at school.
Keely Noffsinger, 18, valedictorian at Manteo High School, said there are fewer factions in smaller schools. If a fight does break out, it is usually one person versus another, not group against group. Noffsinger, a Moorhead Scholar, will be heading to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the fall.
AIDS, SEX EDUCATION
Most seniors say they got enough information from school to know how to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. Eighty-six percent claimed to have learned enough to keep themselves safe, almost 15 percentage points above regional numbers this year and up from last year's two-thirds.
A medical doctor came to Ocracoke School to educate 17-year-old Lena Austin's health class about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases. She liked the fact that ``he didn't beat around the bush.''
CLASSES THEY LOVE . . . AND HATE
If it's not applicable to the here and now, students don't want anything to do with it. That's what seniors said when they listed the classes that taught them the most and least.
Seniors were passionate when it came to core classes like math and English.
Vocational/technical classes received high marks because seniors felt they were gaining useful knowledge for future jobs.
``Art will be most useful for the tattoo business,'' said one Currituck senior. ``History will be least useful. I'm never gonna need it in giving tattoos.''
by CNB