IYD works on discouraging those behaviors in youth through high school. We are particularly excited about Gov. Bush's election because of firsthand knowledge of his interest in youth. A subsequent conference in Virginia attracted over 1,000, and both featured racially diverse attendees, Smith said. Now there are 26 STDs, some of them incurable. But it is not just poor or minority kids who are at high risk.
White kids are by far the leaders in use of alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.
These are suburban kids. Smith took care to emphasize the number of kids today who behave themselves. Forty-six per cent are involved in none at all. Violence, incidentally, despite the highly publicized incidents of school shootings, has been going down for five years. Drug use, too, he said, is finally beginning to decline again.