California survey shows troubling portrait of children's lives
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PALO ALTO -- More than 4 percent of seventh-graders have brought a gun to school, more than 9 percent of ninth-graders have brought a knife or other non-firearm weapon to school, and more than 24 percent of high school juniors had driven after drinking or ridden with a friend who had been drinking.
This somewhat troubling and sometimes startling portrait of the lives of children in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties is part of a trove of data released last week on the safety, well-being and opportunities for youth in California.
Among findings of the Kidsdata report, compiled from various sources by the Lucile Packard Foundation For Children's Health: