CALABASAS : District to Apply for Anti-Drug Grant

The Las Virgenes Unified School District plans to apply for a state grant to fund programs to keep youngsters off drugs, district officials said.

The grant, which would be paid out over three years, would help the school assign counselors to work with elementary schoolchildren considered liable to become drug users, said Linda M. Cohen, the district’s coordinator of special programs. The district must provide a 50% matching grant.

“Research has shown that if the problems can be addressed at an early age, that distinctly minimizes the risk of kids getting involved with drugs or other adverse behaviors when they are older,” she said.

District officials want to visit other school districts that are already conducting such early intervention programs, she said. The district is prepared to match as much as $20,000, she said.

Alcohol and marijuana use have risen significantly in the past three years among students in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, and remains above the state average, according to a student survey taken last fall. The random survey polled 687 seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders.

After the survey was released, school officials said they would review their anti-drug programs to see if they could be improved. The district, Cohen said, has had a number of drug-prevention programs in place for years, but they have been scaled back due to budget cuts.

The survey, by Rodney Skager & Associates, shows that, for example, the number of 11th-graders who said they used marijuana weekly rose from 6.8.% during the 1990-91 school year to 27% in 1993-94. Statewide, the figure was 14.5% in 1993-94. The number of 11th-graders who said they drank beer in the previous six months rose from 68.5% in 1990-91 to 73.4% in 1993-94. The state average is 63.3%.

Cocaine use was also up for 11th-graders, from 5.6% in 1990-91 to 8.4% in the most recent survey. The state average is 4.9%.