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SCHOOL BOARD OKAYS STUDENT DRUG SURVEY

Franklin County students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade will soon be participating in an anonymous statewide survey on drug and alcohol abuse after the Board of Education approved the action Thursday night.

The State Department of Health created the survey and the University of Tennessee will compel its data.

With the age of children that experiment with drugs and drink with falling into the elementary and junior high school levels, educators are finding that they must begin to intervene at an earlier age.

The Board was told that while use of the "traditional" drugs is down, the abuse of inhalants, available in almost any store, has shot way up.

The data will help educators learn when and where the problems with drugs begin.

The computer that analyzes the data will also be able to tell if a survey has "bogus answers", likely caused by a student filling out the form with false information.

No student will be identified in the surveys and each form will be sealed into an envelope and sent to the university for evaluation.  Local educators would not have access to the raw data and the student participating in the survey are anonymous.

Parents will have the option of excluding their kids if they do not wish for them to participate.  Students will also have the choice of refusing to take the survey as well.