News
No Safe Harbor in the Suburbs
RALEIGH — Do schools in the suburbs promote safer behavior than schools in cities? According to data collected from a new longitudinal study, the incidence of sexual activity, drug-alcohol use and abuse, delinquent behavior, and violence, are just as common in suburban high schools as in urban ones. In fact, teens in suburban schools sometimes engage in more of these activities than do teens in city schools. “There may have been a time when suburban schools really were a safe haven from the rise of these so-called ‘urban’ problems,” one analyst said. “But if there ever was such a time, it’s gone.”
Dr. Karen Y. Palasek