Alcohol remains the largest substance abuse problem amongst high school students in the Boulder Valley School District. The 2015 Healthy Kids Colorado survey found that 38 percent of high schoolers had at least one drink in the past 30 days, compared to 30 percent across Colorado.
Alcohol also remains the first substance Boulder Valley students tend to try, with 12 percent having consumed alcohol before age 13. By that early age, 4 percent have smoked marijuana, 3 percent have smoked a cigarette, and 2 percent have had sex, according to survey respondents.
Boulder Valley high schoolers were on par with their peers across the state on a variety of other measures, including the 28 percent who reported feeling sad or hopeless in the past year almost every day for two weeks or more in a row, compared to 30 percent statewide and nationally.
“Hopelessness connects to a risk of substance abuse,” said Lee Scriggins, Community Substance Abuse Prevention Manager for Boulder County Public Health. “People use substances to handle feelings and create relationships.”
The county’s call to action is for adults to build relationships with young people, and to see young people as an asset, while modeling how to deal with stress, without violence and without abusing substances, Scriggins said. A sense of belonging and connection are protective factors against substance abuse and for better mental health, she added.
Boulder Valley School District is responding with an holistic and preventative approach that starts as early as possible. The district hired 10 new elementary school counselors and a supervisor for the 2017-2018 school year. It also hired two new behavioral health advocates, bringing the total to five.
“The data shows when you focus on students’ social-emotional well-being, their academic performance can increase dramatically,” said Andy Tucker, BVSD’s Director of Student Support. “I think we are responding very, very well. We also are doing everything in our power to put resources in schools for prevention.”
