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Youth Risk Behavior Study

It's no surprise that the presentation provided to the SC on the Youth Risk Behavior Study listed in the October 18th SC meeting packet offers no real solutions for the drug and alcohol problems in the MPS. One glaring point is that 2.1% of students responded that they had used heroin. The State average is 1.8% so Melrose is above the State average of heroin use! Also not surprising is the omission of questions on alcohol use since it’s basically accepted by the school and the public here in Melrose.

The presentation highlights that students in band and sports were required to read and agree to educational material on substance abuse and Parents were provided with a link. When the MPS have a serious drug and alcohol abuse issue and a heroin use above the State average how can the response of the schools be so weak? Not to mention, the educational material the students are reading and agreeing to is not being enforced by the school.

The Melrose Substance Abuse Coalition is failing us miserably. It’s obviously a typical no show city hall job where they likely collect a great salary and benefits at the expense of the taxpayers. I’d like to know why they dropped funding for the Substance Free Grad Night?

Come on MPS. You have some serious problems that need your attention. Reading and signing some education material doesn’t cut it. Start helping to keep the students of Melrose safe from drugs and alcohol.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

I hypothesize that there would be a correlation between early use of alcohol and heroin use. I think this because most people know heroin is a dangerous drug. However, when un-sober, one might have less ability to process that knowledge in the spirit of "one try" of heroin, Percocet, oxy, etc.

I think, as shameful as the results would be, we need to understand how far ranging the alcohol use is in terms of age of first unsupervised consumption, age of frequent (say, monthly) consumption, and frequency of binge drinking. All of these have an adverse effect on a developing brain.

Many are up in arms about concussions in sports, yet for drinking it is viewed as a rite of passage. Substance abuse has the same, if not, worse effects as a concussion.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

No data on alcohol use?

Classic risky behavior for youth. I can't fathom not wanting to know this data. Even if underreported, it gives an insight into the community. Unless weed has taken over, drinking is the number 1 risky behavior of youth. That and unprotected sex. And unsafe driving. But unprotected sex and unsafe driving are made worse with alcohol.

I believe self reporting is lower than the truth so that heroin figure ought to scare the bejeezus out of everyone.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

Agree with the above poster that the substance abuse commission is fake. I didn't know that people get paid to do it. I thought it was volunteer service.

Did the SC consider that maybe there are kids not playing sports or in band that are using drugs and the unmentioned alcohol? Not that those kids don't but that's a small segment of students.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

"Also not surprising is the omission of questions on alcohol use since it’s basically accepted by the school and the public here in Melrose. "

That data is there. This is a standard survey administered to many communities.

The fact that the SC paid several thousand dollars each year for this and then purposely censored the areas that were most concerning in the documents that the public would see illustrates perfectly the sinister and pervasive conduct of this administration and those who hired it/them.

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/questionnaires.htm

There was plenty of data of Melrose students re: alcohol use, and it is (should be) a very concerning picture.

More grant money for the Melrose programs is clearly not the answer because the organizations tasked with managing/implementing them--the school administration, Substance Abuse, MAAV--are fraudulent and made up of the very people in league with the realtors to keep bad news away from the public and focus instead on the effluence of self-congratulation in the local culture.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

@SC censorship

Thank you.

So they have the data and chose not to mention it? That shows that it's bad or Margaret Driscoll, SC member of the year would have been bleating success.

I thought that section had somehow dropped off the main survey or the survey the Melrose students took.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

That's exactly right. Marg and Jess (just as crazed) would have been hearing angels during the meeting, gushing ad nauseum, and running off to have another martini afterwards, plotting to find more trumped-up awards they can give themselves. Liz would have rushed in to tell us she's a REAL SCIENTIST, and then gushed about the extraordinary nothingness of whatever she could pretend-point to on her little toy tablet. The frantically Bobbing Head would have been desperate to "ask" for a couple of inane clarifications while scraping and bowing at the feet of the rest and nervously twirling her pen. The criminal would have gotten a little more red in the face and puffed in the cheeks, but that's all. Chris would have repeated her poorly expressed and flimflam praise litany and gone back to her dumb sitting and staring. The "education expert" would have stuck his fingers triangularly up his nose and gloated about the always INCREDiBLE and EXTRAORDINARY great news.

They hid data that was very damaging and revealing about how Melrose "stacks up" with other communities when it comes to alcohol abuse of our community's children, increasingly younger children. Melrose absolutely does not want to talk about these things, doncha know.

Re: Youth Risk Behavior Study

It's juvenile and kids just write whatever.