PAUSD Board of Education Palo Alto Unified School District 25 Churchill Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 Cc: Superintendent

K. Skelly, Palo Alto City Council, James Keene Subject: PAUSD Opposition To Marijuana Dispensaries in Palo Alto (Measure C) Elected Officials: As you must surely know, advocates for drug legalization in California have managed to successfully place a ballot initiative before the voters of Palo Alto this coming November. To date, the PAUSD, and its elected officials, seem to have been silent on this matter even though there is considerable evidence in the public domain that students at the PAUSD are involved with illegal drug consumption, and possibly sale of these substances on and off PAUSD campuses. This years so-called Mental Health Survey, just released by its authors, provides more than adequate proof of the problems at the PAUSD. The following data, taken from the Gunn High School dataset, has been annotated to draw your attention to the areas that should demonstrate the problems of drug use in the PAUSD Demographic Data The following two tables are provided from sources other than the Mental Health Survey
Gunn High School 2009-10 Demographics Number Asian 739 White, Not Hispanic 944 Hispanic/Latino 126 Other 35 Total: 1890 Percent 39% 50% 7% 2%

Source: http://pausd.org/community/about/downloads/SPSA/GunnSPSA_DataPages_Fall2010.pdf

Enrollment By Grade 9th Grade 10th Grade 11th Grade 12th Grade Total:

Number 448 508 478 478 1912

Source: http://webschoolpro.com/henry-m-gunn-high-school_CA43696414332904/school-enrollmentcharacteristics.html

Alcohol/Drug Use Data The data presented below is from the report (see link at bottom) on Gunn High School. In some cases, the tabular presentation of the data has been slightly reorganized to demonstrate areas of concern, since the categories do, on occasion, include information that is effectively apples and oranges. The use of subtotals helps to disambiguate the data in those tables, somewhat. The use of RED highlights areas of student alcohol/drug use that should be of concern to all Palo Altansnot just those associated directly with the PAUSD. The use of YELLOW highlights areas of student alcohol/drug use that should be of concern to all Palo Altansnot just those associated directly with the PAUSD.
Student Sample Size Target Sample Final Number Average Response Size

431 386 90%

419 352 84%

Table A4.3 Current Alcohol or Drug Use, Past 30 Days Grade 9 % Alcohol (at least one drink) Binge drinking (5 or more drinks in a row) Marijuana Inhalants Cocaine Methamphetamine or any amphetamine Ecstasy, LSD or other psychedelics Other illegal drug or pill (Drugs) Subtotal: Any drug use Heavy drug user Any of the above AOD Use Two or more of the above at the same time 11 4 3 2 1 2 2 1 11 4 3 12 3 Grade 11 % 24 13 13 2 2 1 2 3 23 14 8 27 6 Students

115 62 62 10 10 5 10 14 110 67 38 129

Question HS A.63-71/MS A.52-56: During the past 30 days, on how many days did you usealcoholbinge drink marijuanainhalantscocainemethaphetamine or any amphetamine..esctasy, LSD, or other psychedelicsother illegeal drug or pill? na=not asked of middle school students

NoteUsing the demographic data above, an additional column been added, which provides the actual number of students involved in these illegal activities.

Table A4.15 Perceived Harm of Frequent Marijuana Use Grade 9 % Marijuana - Smoke Occasionally Great Moderate Slight None Subtotal: Marijuana - Smoke once or twice a week Great Moderate Slight None Subtotal: Grade 11 %

37 30 16 16 62 63 17 8 12 37

25 22 27 26 75 40 26 15 19 60

Question HS A.82-83/MS A.68-69: How much do people risk harming themselves physically and in other ways when they smoke marijuana occasionallysmoke marijuana once or twice a week?

NoteNotice that there is both a lack of knowledge in Gunn High School students about the harm of marijuana (and presumably harder drugs also). Moreover, this lack of knowledge seems to increase significantly as students progress from Freshmen towards their Senior year.

Table A4.20 Perceived Difficulty of Obtaining Alcohol and Marijuana Grade 11 % 4 5 32 40 72 20

Grade 9 % Alcohol Very difficult Fairly difficult Fairly easy Very easy Subtotal: Don't know Marijuana Very difficult Fairly difficult Fairly easy Very easy Subtotals: Don't know 7 7 27 28 55 31

12 10 20 18 38 39

4 5 29 37 66 25

Question HS A.85-86/MS A.71-72: How difficult is it for students in your grade to get alcohol or marijana if they really want them?

NoteTable A4.20 should be of concern to Palo Altans not interested in having Marijuana Dispensaries legalized in our town. If Marijuana is so easily obtained by PAUSD students nowit will only be easier for them to obtain in the future.
Table A4.21 Offered Illegal Drugs on School Property, Past 12 Months

Grade Grade 9 11 % % 0 times 90 77 1 time 6 7 2 to 3 times 2 7 4 or more times 2 9 Subtotal: 10 23 Question HS A.107/MS A.89: During the past 12 months, how many times on school property have you been offered, sold or given an illegal drug?

Note (1)Table A4.21 should be of concern to all PAUSD officials, and Staff. If there is any truth in the data provided by this table, then the sale of drugs on the PAUSD campuses is on-going, and pervasive. Yet, no one associated with the Administration seems to be willing to admit to these illegal activities. Note (2)The follow-up questions below should be added to this survey: A. Who offered you drugs on campus: 1) Staff, 2) Student, 3) Unauthorized Visitor B. Do you believe that drugs are being stored on campus? 1) Yes 2) No
Table A4.23 Heard, Read or Watched any Messages about Not Using Alcohol, Tobacco or Drugs Grade 11 % 87 13

No Yes

Grade 9 % 85 15

Question HS A 99/MS A.62: During the past 12 months...Have you heard, read or watched any messages about not using alcohol, tobacco, or drugs?

NoteIf the students answered truthfully to this questionwhat in the world is the PAUSD doing to provide at least a token effort to provide information about the problems associated with illegal drug use?

Table A4.24 Used Alcohol, Past 30 days Cells are empty if there are less than 25 respondents. Grade 11 % 25 5

Hispanic or Latino American Indian or Alaska Native Asian Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander White 20 Mixed (two or more) races 5 Question HS A.63/MS A.52: During the past 30

Grade 9 % 19

29 28

11th Grade Demographics Asian White, Not Hispanic Hispanic/Latino Other

Actual Students 9 69 8 3

NoteAdditional data has been added to convert the percentages in Table A4.24 into real people. Given that there are differential representations of each ethnic group, the use of unweighted percentages makes it difficult to understand just how many students are involved in these activities.
Table A4.25 Used Marijuana, Past 30 days Cells are empty if there are less than 25 respondents. Grade 11 % 19

Hispanic or Latino American Indian or Alaska Native Asian 1 5 Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander White 7 21 Mixed (two or more) races 2 17 Question HS A.65/MS A.54: During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke marijuana?

Grade 9 % 9

Note21% of the white student population amounts to about 100 students. Discussion

This survey offers hard evidence of a clear and present problem of drug use by PAUSD students, on and off, the campus. This information has been in the public domain before, but there seems to be little interest in seeing it for what it ishere in Palo Alto. Given that this survey only looks at grades 9 and 11, it stands to reason that grades 10 and 12 would provide more data points that would provide a complete picture of the extent of this problem on the PAUSD campuses, and in the students homes. Questions While there are many, many, questions that should be on peoples minds, from reviewing this datathe following four are offered initially 1. 2. 3. 4. Why do so many students feel the need to use drugs? Why are female students showing lightly higher drug use than males? Where, and from whom, are students obtaining these drugs? Why are so many students claiming not to have seen, heard, or read, any messages about not using drugs on PAUSD campuses?

Conclusion Given that there was a time that students in the PAUSD didnt use/sell illegal drugs, it is difficult to understand how the PAUSD Board of Trustees can ignore the data from these surveys. Is it another of those unwritten taboos associated with the PAUSD that we just dont talk about such things? The PAUSD Board of Trustees is hereby requested to review all of the data from all of the schools, and then to pass a Resolution opposing Palo Alto Measure C, which would only increase the availability of, and use of, illegal drugsparticularly Marijuanaby students, on and off campus. Wayne Martin Palo Alto, CA www.scribd.com/wmartin46 www.youtube.com/wmartin46 www.twitter.com/wmartin46
Source: http://pausd.org/parents/programs/studentconnectedness/downloads/gunn_1112_main.pdf

PS: Please include this communication in the public record.