Healthy Youth Survey Coming to PHS

POMEROY–Sarah Myers with Quality Behavioral Health, and Jim Nelson, Pomeroy’s School Resource Officer, gave a presentation to the Pomeroy School Board, for the approval of the Healthy Youth Survey scheduled to be given to Eighth–Twelfth graders the week of October 5, 2020. This survey is generally administered by the State of Washington every two years to all Junior and Senior High School students across the state through a pencil-and-paper survey, which is collected securely and all answers are kept anonymous. The data is then compiled and reported back by county. However, the state survey for this year has been put on hold indefinitely due to the lack of access to schools and students caused by the pandemic. Because the information gathered is needed to help with grant applications, program planning and providing needed services for students, Meyers and Nelson have proposed they administer their own version of the survey here locally.

The state survey generally includes about 160 questions and has privacy measures in place to protect students’ identities. The survey designed for this year in Pomeroy, which will be answered by students on their individually assigned Chromebooks, has only 41 questions, which have been taken from the bank of questions used in the state survey.

The first four questions ask for demographic information, including the student’s grade level, race or ethnicity, gender, and sexual preference. Meyers said the data, which will be compiled by grade level, could possibly lead to identification of an individual student, due to the small sizes of the classes. An example she gave was a student who identifies as an eleventh grader, male, Hispanic or Latino, would be easy to identify.

Other questions included in the survey include those about tobacco and vaping use, alcohol and marijuana use, illegal drug use and prescription drug misuse. These questions also ask about use by others in their household and how these substances were accessed. There are also a few questions about “Dating, Relationships, and Safety,” as well as “Mental Health” issues, focused on suicide tendencies.

Parents are to be notified of the upcoming survey, and students may “opt out” and not participate. School Board members, who were sent a copy of the survey in advance of the meeting, were asked to approve each and every question on the survey. The board voted unanimously to approve the survey, as presented, to be administered the following week.