BY MEGHAN FLYNN Garden City Telegram
USD 457 Board of Education heard an overview of the 2021 Kansas Communities That Care data at their regular board meeting Monday.
Kansas Communities That Care survey is given statewide to students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12.
Diane Elliott, USD 457’s Social Emotional Learning facilitator, said the survey compares the local results to a statewide average and helps identify trends over the past through years.
In Garden City, the results showed that alcohol, marijuana use, and opioid use are trending downward, Elliott said. Sadness and suicidal ideation are trending upward, and bullying is down, except for cyber bullying.
“Alcohol use in the past 30 days … the overall trend is down, the only grade level that went up was sixth grade from last year, but it’s still down from the 2018 numbers,” she said. “Marijuana use in the last 30 days is also down. 2018-19, again, was a peak year in that in the last few years.”
Elliott said the bullying data in Garden City is mostly below the state averages, there are some areas that are a bit higher, which is good, but cyber bullying is increasing. The biggest increase was seen in 6th grade.
Regarding sadness and suicidal ideation, one of the signs of depression is stopping or changing some behaviors and stopping unusual activities, Elliott said, compared to last year that’s up in all grades for males and females. For students in sixth grade, in the 2020 school year, 28.9% said they felt and or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more that they stopped doing usual activities. In 2021 this increased to 33.4%.
In 2020, 33.4% eighth grade students reported having these feelings, that increased to 34.1% in 2021. In 2020, 36.9% of tenth grade students reporte ..
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