asked students questions about drug and alcohol use in the high school that's right kevin there's been a lot of speculation as to the extent of drug and alcohol abuse in the high school however the survey data states that p t h s is below the state average in terms of drug use and all categories except that of alcohol use and other words according to this survey p t h s is at or below the state average in use of cocaine methamphetamine club drugs marijuana and heroin while drug abuse a just as below other pennsylvania school districts the facts that students are still using drugs at all times as appalling to many citizens here today we've invited p g a tour students on the show to discuss the poll results and how accurately they feel it represents the entire student body we'd like to welcome amanda metz all shannon mcnamara mark rawlings and sara miley on to the show thanks  how do you feel like your you heard about the poll results do you think that's accurate you think that's what is really going on here well what exactly were the poor results what the poor basically said was that first of all they surveyed the sophomores in  problem and finally saw it but i think seeing the problem may blow it out of proportion way too much and just i mean we maybe there is a drug problem there shouldn't be as many kids well there should be any kids doing drugs but it's not like we had ten times worse a problem than any other school and they just really blew it out of proportion more than it was yeah like i think when i mean it was in the papers like peter's township pat was a drug problem you know it wasn't like  area schools around the area are having issues with drugs and school or something like that i saw one quote in the newspaper was him a faculty member who said he had worked in city schools and here is township was so much worse than any city school he had ever worked  and i just sort of really sort of put the spin out there in the media that peters township is this haven for drugs where i mean i personally don't feel that's the case but what we do is we took our cameras out of the halls of peters township high school and we ask in the media so all let's see what the kids had to say i don't think there's as big as the drug problem because nobody's really offered me any drugs and i didn't really notice anybody using any drugs my friends only use drugs so no question there's a big chunk problem no because the news blows it really out of proportion i don't think the drug problem as it's as big as they say the news because i'm in the high school and i know i definitely think there is a huge drug problem because like i go into the bathrooms and like oh i smell smoke and i can't go to a class like without smell is just horrible i'm not really sure if i'm going along but the news says i'm sure there's a drug problem but my friends didn't do that so i don't ever see it going on in school so i guess i can't really compare it with the news says so what i see in school but i'm sure it's going on i definitely don't think there's too many drugs and peters township it's people think there  are only certain groups i think to do drugs i don't think the drug problem is that bad because i personally have never heard anything about drugs like none of my friends do it and i believe that the news that the drug  portion i don't think it's that bad here i think the news made the drug problem here sancia a lot bigger than what it really is i believe that peter's does have a drug problem but the media tends to blow things for a portion of times and i don't know for sure because i'm not i don't really know how bad it actually is i do not feel that there is a problem in theaters another my friends and i don't see anything going on during school so i don't feel that be i think they blew it out of proportion because no matter what school you go to there's always the group and even even if there's that group there's always people do drugs matter where so it's not like we're the only school that does drugs i have to say that i really think that the media is embellishing our drug problem because it seems as if the only people who really know about it are people who are involved with or know someone who is most people just hear about it and don't really know that much about it so the media is probably embellishing and it's probably not that big of a drug problem but there definitely is one as a really interesting package and i think like basically everyone that was you know interviewed pretty much said that there is a problem at p t a h s but i would know i think about it yeah yeah but it doesn't they don't see it in small and i think i would agree with that and then you also mention something like  yeah one of the girls that said she did know about any of the drug problems but she felt that there was a drug situation because she always smelled cigarette smoke in the bathrooms and while cigarettes are illegal for anybody in high school to use right now that's not the kind of drug problem you're saying that peters has like they're talking about like we're having heroin users who are heavy alcohol it's like that's what the media is portraying the students in the school was i think we need to actually look at the drug problem is like we talking about if you like how do you define a drug problem is it one person on drugs is it like an entire class and i think that the media is going out of proportion the district trying to keep it under wraps a little bit and there's kind of a discrepancy you there about what it is but i think that also i don't think this is just something that emerged over the past year year and a half i think i'm sure if you were to come to this high school ten years ago under the same program similar to this one the results would have been very similar just because that's how that's like the nature of how people are in high school and people choose different paths and there's a lot of factors that play but i definitely think the kids are using drugs today nationwide but they were using you know years ago and i think to the extent people you're using drugs you can alcohol and when you're either seen or heard anything from anyone that there's no never and that's really interesting because i have a neighbor who's going into the high school next year from school and her parents are very worried because the and that may be affecting the school environment or maybe affecting you know the way they are when they come to school or the work to do that you know would contribute to their performance in school is that the school's job though i mean like if kids aren't doing it in in the school then why is it such an issue for the school to take on that burden and it's like peters township school what i mean shouldn't their parents be they're being like well there's always the parent factor but i think it's just you know we've always been in like a classy kind of school and they just want to i mean it's to keep that in the peters township way you know we don't we don't want to have anything wrong we need to keep our school like high class and just kids don't do stuff wrong i mean they want to try to keep it the best environment for kids and i guess that's the way that they see it and on the say i'm really sorry but i'm the same or i'm like i think there's a thin line between a teacher and a parent and the teachers while they feel responsible they have to know when to say when and you know maybe the hasa should be searched instead of the school it's a good point and we're definitely going to get back into that when we come back on but we're going to have to take a quick commercial break so stay tuned to the big picture there's a forest fire there's a certain where there's a country needs us most the men and women of the air force reserve are there and freedom around the beyond i do think there's a stereotypical type of drug use or no i don't think that the way people dress with anything and there are other not that age add i think that you can only judge someone's personality or actions by what they draft just like you can't judge a book by its cover  there's certain circumstances you can tell that people do drugs by the way they dress but there are some people that just same way and they don't you can tell that people are judging by the way just because they usually go with the wrapper look big pants you know big shirt their face is sort of now down but i it's a serious issue so you can always tell when someone's doing something like that usually i mean you probably couldn't tell if people do drugs by the way they just but maybe you could figure out who they hang out with and maybe that will give you a hint as if they do and i don't think it matters at all what people dress like ted determine whether they use drugs or not and i think and time caveat that in some cases no i don't think that you can tell that person is a job just by the way they dress a lot of times people make preconceived notions about someone by their parents and usually they are wrong so no i don't think that people you can't tell people are drug use by the way they dress and because it doesn't show their morals or their value i think that you can definitely tell if a person is a drug user by the way that they talk or by the way they dress just the way that somebody carries them so if you can definitely tell what kind of person they are and what kind of personality they represent you know because i was just thirteen we're not gigantic i don't think that you can tell if anyone is a drug user by the way they look because i don't think anything about anyone by the w fact that a lot of people think that a typical drug user wears baggy clothes this kind of grungy doesn't just nice well living in we know that a lot of kids here you know take huge concern about how they look so just because someone's walking down the hall and our economy and american law and they look on ice in the hairs are it doesn't mean they're not a drug user going well also i think kids that do drugs i mean you have to have money so obviously the kids are buying these drugs have the money to buy them maybe mike from all these statistics i don't know you know there's different varieties of what you come up with depending on how you spend i think that i think our school is definitely if if we had a drug problem our drug is with alcohol i don't i don't think it's  when i don't think it's with the cocaine i don't think it's with the marijuana does that stuff go on yeah but that's not our that's not our problem and i would say like if it does go on definitely a very low percentage of the high school does that kind of thing because i've never seen anything like that but i would agree with you that drinking is bigger a problem than well that makes any one of us in the alcohol is easily accessible it's like experimenting with drugs or start using drugs and i didn't hear pressure as a big name your question is a big factor in curiosity i mean i think those are the two big things they if you are your friends do it then i mean it's just it's a natural kid instinct it's all your friends too you need to try right there just in time in your life when you're trying to you know like grow up and everything and you know you didn't rebel as much as you probably i'm not like to say that on television i mean i do think  a is an easy target for drug use because people know that we have the money and i think it's just because we cut we come and people come in appears to have nine people have money and there's just like a traditional use and then people come in and try to sell drugs because they know the money and then it's kind of just that it builds on each other and slowly maybe i think it's gotten worse and worse because we're now getting this kind of reputation for being drug administration's not trying to cover it up when before all this attention it wasn't that big of a deal but now people are saying oh yeah p t s is a drug using community and i think that maybe now i think it's making it worse school and search for drugs do you guys think that that was effective do you feel like that was an effective way of combat obviously there was no they didn't find anyone to be thing right so obviously the kids if they did have it got it out and it's not in school anymore even if they say it's not as effective because kids already know about it more it's not there and until it happens the kids are going to have it sit with their style i'd like to keep going on this topic we just went back out into the think keep doing drugs because they're too weak to just stay on their own and not foreign to what everyone else is doing i think kids do drugs because they're sad about something and i think that kids because their parents aren't home they have too welcome back to the big picture we've been discussing drug use and peter sounds of high school today on the eve all agree the drugs on the outside you can just in our community but a society as a whole but i think the real question is what can we do and what should be done to prevent kids from using drugs in the that our school just needs to back off a little bit i mean it is a problem basically any way you're at any high school they are going to go to and that maybe a survey every once in awhile could help to really see how much of a problem that is there's not really much a school could do without interfering with the children's personal lives and their decisions on what they want to do with their life i guess our schools should just have more security like check every once in a while and just make sure that nothing bad is going in that might help a little bit it's not up to the school to fix the drug problem i think it's up to the parents the school should leave the drug problem alone and let it stop it we're you know what can be done to stop kids from using drugs i think the second to last comment that was made on the video about it's not really the school district wants ability is that a good point i mean is that something that i think i've heard in th e papers and everything there's been reports of people like parents unknowingly letting parties go on in the houses and supplying without a call and that kind of thing and i think that's where the problem starts because if the parents don't let it happen it i don't think it would happen as much i mean sure it would happen sometimes people would go out somewhere and have a nice little party in the woods or something but if they let it happen in the homes and they let people come over that their parents certainly don't appreciate it or want it to happen before or they're they going after probably a house that had a parent who had to make some kind of decision or didn't know i mean it but it still went back to the home and i would say alternately it's still as a parent sponsibility when you're young and when you're i would agree with you and i think like certainly it's the school district's responsibility the minute that people bring it into the school he says it's there it's affecting their learning and i think that's what you know the school district district is trying to you know cool it's like school activities such as prom or when you when it comes into the football games or if you go to a baseball game or a basketball game because there there is a place that i have seen like i have seen kids that are under the influence storing during a football game or during a basketball game that's where i see it i don't see it in school i see it at school functions and they're like the school does hastert take responsibility there and maybe i'm not going to speak on her the kids under the influence but the fact that he's there and he is i mean you three kids come to a baseball game drove her two kids coming drunk does that really mean though that the community as a whole it has a problem with drugs and i think that's where like everyone in the media and everyone's getting slipped up it's like we're all being typecast has had serious issues i mean i think it's very rare and i just it's just disappointing me that like our community is getting such a bad rap now because of this because it was two people go to a basketball game for the school district it's something you're going to have to face whether you go to places township on in private schools whether they're like religious based or something like that goes on everywhere heart of it is the schools sponsibility to make sure that they provide a safe environment for learning and then the old part is parent and also your direction because a lot of times and we talked about before the district and the school district wants to make their district look like it's clean like perfect above board blue ribbon school and i think when there's some awareness about it parents do start to question  you know bunch of other schools in the area that have just as big of a problem as we do if not more and i think that's a little unfair because you know like there are good students that peter is you know i mean we're good kids and our school i don't really think like and the school like  school activities and that kind of thing i don't really think there is really that bigger problem maybe the community is having some of an alcohol problem but it's not really that bad but in our school as like being afraid to bring your kids into our school system if you don't want to be involved then it's easy not to be involved in the it's not in the school like attacking the kids and there's not people going around this is the drug yeah it's not like that is it privately outside of school and they just i mean it's not in the school it's not thing and like if you're a parent and you're actually cards pleading not sending your kid here because that i think the biggest thing is for you just have confidence in what you've taught your child like the difference between right and wrong and i mean i think that's for a freshm and for seniors i mean we're going to college next year and if we're honest with each other like college is where it's going to happen that's where the more serious problems are people are away from home but if you don't if you're not overbearing to the children like the school district in the parents then they're not they're going and trust your ted enough and to know that you've taught them what's right and wrong and that kind of thing so it's a good point you know why i dislike thank you all for being on the show i know we're almost out of time and that's about all the time we have for our last big picture of the year