
DATE: Friday, June 13, 1997                 TAG: 9706130733

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  122 lines

GRADUATING SENIORS FULL OF OPTIMISM, POLL SHOWS ``WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO DO BETTER THAN OUR PARENTS DID,'' ONE SAYS.

The generation without a name has an optimistic face.

Nearly 9,000 students graduate from South Hampton Roads high schools this week. They're not Generation Xers (the cutoff birthdate for those guys is 1977). But they've seen it all, and still they're smiling. That's according to a survey of 999 high school seniors by The Virginian-Pilot.

More than half of this year's seniors, 68 percent of those surveyed, said they believe they will attain a higher standard of living than their parents, despite being eyewitness to some of society's most troubling trends. They predict prosperity and a kinder, gentler world.

``My class can make a difference,'' said Melissa Nols, 18, a senior at Western Branch High School in Chesapeake who plans to enter the work force after graduation to save money for college. ``We've got a lot of smart people, people who actually want to go out and make a difference.''

``We have an obligation to do better than our parents did,'' said Joy Carrington, 17, a senior at Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake who will attend Virginia Union University in Richmond this fall. ``When you take into account what we have to work with, the tools and technology, there is no excuse for us not to.''

National surveys indicate that teen-age drug use has risen since these seniors entered high school in the early 1990s. They've watched it happen - 65 percent of the students surveyed witnessed an increase in drug use among their peers since starting high school.

Some of them are part of the trend. Thirty-six percent of high school seniors nationwide smoked marijuana in the previous year, according to a 1996 study by the University of Michigan. In South Hampton Roads, 45 percent of high school seniors said that they had tried marijuana.

This group also knows well that juvenile crime is rising - 16 percent have been a victim of violence in school and 41 percent know of students who have brought guns to school or to social activities such as dances and athletic events.

In a way, what they've witnessed will motivate this class to do better, said Courtney Quinn, 18, a 1997 graduate of Catholic High School in Virginia Beach. ``We can see what mistakes have been made before us, but we have an awfully big job.''

There are bright spots in the survey, which has been conducted by The Virginian-Pilot every year since 1992. (Portsmouth schools, however, declined to participate this year.)

A full 40 percent of seniors said that race relations had improved since they entered school. This is a significant increase over prior years when as few as 28 percent thought that race relations had improved. In 1994, 71 percent of students said that they had close friends of another race compared to 78 percent of this year's seniors.

That's because today's teen-agers are growing up differently, said Deidre Eason, 18, a senior at Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake. ``My mother and father didn't have as much freedom as I do about who they were friends with,'' she said. ``They couldn't just go out and have friends of different races.''

Deidre, who is headed to Virginia Tech to study political science, believes the racial situation will continue to improve as she and her peers move into adulthood and begin raising their own children to appreciate and cherish cultural differences.

Perhaps the most revealing responses on the 1997 survey were to this open-ended question: ``What has stood in the way of achieving the most you could? Were these obstacles created by you or by outside forces?''

Work was one of the most common responses to this question.

Before 1950, only 5 percent of high school students worked during the school year. Today, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 44.2 percent of America's teen-agers ages 16 to 19 work, including 42.2 percent of Virginia's youths. And of Virginia's 16- to 19-year-olds, 24 percent are officially working 35 hours or more each week. Studies have found that as students' work hours increase, their grades fall and their use of drugs and alcohol rises.

Tara Taylor, 18, a senior at Hickory High in Chesapeake, didn't fall into the substance abuse trap, but working two jobs for a total of 50 hours a week throughout her senior year took its toll. Her grade-point average is 3.125. She figures that without a job, it would have been about a 3.5.

``The last thing I wanted to do was study'' when returning from her job at the mall at night, she said.

A nomadic high school life was the culprit for many seniors whose parents are in the military. A few students listed peer pressure to party and to slack off in school. Others listed drug and alcohol abuse. A few others had to juggle parenthood with academics.

Aline Ellis, 20, a senior at Norview High in Norfolk, dropped out of school in 1996 during the second semester of her senior year. Her son, Antonio, was born last summer and she returned to school this fall. ``It was stressful trying to keep the baby busy while I did my homework,'' Aline said. Problems with a teacher almost led her to drop out again, but her guidance counselor convinced her to stay. She made the honor roll all year and will enter Norfolk State University in the fall.

But the No. 1 reason that seniors listed for not achieving what they could have was ``laziness.''

An aversion to homework is what held down David Brown, 18, a senior at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake. ``It held me back from what I could have done,'' he said. ``Just not applying myself to do the little things to get the grade.'' If he had only overcome it, he feels certain that his 2.8 GPA would have been more like a 4.0. David will attend Texas Bible College in Houston.

Other reasons for not reaching their potential ranged from being overweight to speeding tickets to video games. And one student answered with this simple, yet unavoidable fact of life: Mondays. MEMO: COMING UP

Look for local city-by-city reports on The Virginian-Pilot's 1997

Senior Survey in these community news sections:

Sunday: The Chesapeake Clipper, Virginia Beach Beacon and related

coverage in The Portsmouth Currents

Thursday: Norfolk Compass

Sunday, June 22: Suffolk Sun ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THE SURVEY

The 1997 Senior Survey was conducted by Susan Acken, The

Virginian-Pilot's marketing and research manager. The margin of

error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Surveys were sent to 24 local public and private schools where

they were distributed to home rooms. The racial breakdown was: 57