Study: '20 Percent of City Seniors Drive Drunk or Ride with Drunk Driver'

Overall, it's better news for Glen Cove schools as a January 2010 study shows alcohol and tobacco use dropped in the city's middle and high schools since 2008, officials revealed at a town hall meeting Thursday.  

"Interestingly, this is not a high-tobacco use area. They're not a lot of teens smoking," said Bernard Gorman, a clinical psychologist and statistician that calculated the results.

Since 2008, alcohol use dropped from 73 to 67 percent of students.

"That's quite a few when you multiply it out," said Gorman, a professor at Nassau Community College and Hofstra University.

Compared to eight other states with schools using the same questionnaire on recent tests, Glen Cove is above average for alcohol use and below it for tobacco use.

"It really is a mixed bag of results," said Sharon Harris, executive director of Substance Abuse Free Environment, or SAFE, a non-profit group based in Glen Cove.

SAFE is a part of a local and larger coalition with the schools, seniors, businesses, government, youth programs and authorities to help root out drugs and alcohol from Glen Cove.

SAFE used money from a federal grant to pay for the survey of every sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grade student in Glen Cove. Harris said it was a total of about 650 students.

The study, Gorman explained, didn't look at heroin or cyberbullying in its report, something SAFE could consider in its 2012 study. 

"[Cyberbullying] is not something that is blatantly out there," Harris said. "It's an addictive behavior – there is little to no punishment for the perpetrator against the victim."

The study, however, didn't reveal all good news. 

Twenty percent of high school seniors reported they either have driven while intoxicated or rode in the car with someone who was driving under the influence.

"I think a lot needs to happen, but you're speaking with a population that is out the door and they don't want to listen," Harris said. "The goal is to get them early."

The release of the study could fall on deaf ears. Besides the media, only a couple of Glen Cove residents outside of the coalition attended Thursday's meeting at City Hall.

Parents, Harris noted, need to step-up their efforts to stress the perils of drinking and drugs, even as their children become adults.

"As the students are getting older and older, they're feeling it's more acceptable and OK to drink and take drugs," Harris said. "So apparently the message they're receiving is beginning to lighten as they mature."

Statistics showed a decrease both in the fear of getting caught by authorities for drinking, and if they thought their parents would approve.

"They're so young that [students] don't think they can get in trouble with it," Harris said.

The Glen Cove City Council took steps earlier this month to curb drunk driving across the board by implementing funds received from Nassau County to attack the problem that commonly arises in the summertime.

For Harris, the timing couldn't be more perfect as she is asking for an increase in patrols – especially as prom season rolls around this spring.

"We have to up enforcement – most assuredly around prom time. And I think the police department will do that," she said.

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