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The St. Vrain Valley School District has released the results of its 2022 Wellness, Culture and Safety Inventory, which assesses the wellbeing of high school students in the district.
In the anonymous annual survey, 7,350 students in grades 9 to 12 were asked 73 questions in 12 categories.
The response rate among high school students was 74.66% — up 3.9% from 2021, said Johnny Terrell, assistant superintendent of student services for the district.
In the survey’s personal safety category, 96% of students said they had not been in a physical fight over the past year, and 89% said they had not been threatened, harassed or hurt on school property, the data shows. Around 85% of respondents said they had not experienced cyberbullying over the past year — a positive increase of two percentage points over the 2021 survey results.
The results also show positive trends in behaviors related to alcohol, drug, tobacco and marijuana use — each category improved by one percentage point over 2021 numbers. Around 98% of respondents said they had not driven a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, and 90% had not consumed alcohol within the past 30 days. Around 95% of students said they had not used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days and had never smoked a cigarette.
According to the survey, 85% of students reported feeling safe at school, a drop of three percentage points from 2021.
“When that dips, nationally, one of the explanations was because of the number of school shootings that have happened around the country — that kids are internalizing some of that as well,” said Dr. Don Haddad, superintendent of St. Vrain Valley Schools. “I’m not trying to say there aren’t issues in every school district around safety, but this in particular across the country — we’re seeing students feel less safe.”
Haddad referenced the multiple active shooter threats at schools across Colorado on Wednesday, all of which were confirmed unfounded.
“That creates another whole level of fear,” Haddad told the Board of Education during its regular meeting Wednesday.
The Mental Health category questions each received positive increases of at least several percentage points over 2021, according to Olga Cordero, executive director of equity and community engagement for the district. Around 69% of students reported they had healthy ways to manage stress, and 44% said they were comfortable talking about their feelings. According to the survey, 54% had not experienced sadness or hopelessness for extended periods of time, and 89% had not contemplated suicide.
Responses to the 2022 survey’s Health and Wellness category remained largely unchanged from 2021, the data shows. Around 94% of students reported they had access to a doctor and dentist when needed, 89% said they sleep between five and nine hours each night and 77% said they were physically active for more than an hour, three days a week.
The School Culture category also remained unchanged from 2021 — 97% of students feel graduating from high school is important to them, and 94% have goals, plans and hopes for their future.
The St. Vrain Valley School District works with the educational survey company Panorama Education to create the Wellness, Culture and Safety Inventory.
