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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

UPDATE: How Safe Are Seattle Schools? Seattle Schools Community Forum: Youth Health/Behavior Survey Results

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Youth Health/Behavior Survey Results:



How Safe Are Seattle Schools?

A headline from the Huffington Post - Oklahoma Schools Lacked Consistent Tornado Shelter Rules.  

From the article (highlights mine):

The two elementary schools leveled by the deadly tornado that swept through the Oklahoma City area Mondaylacked designated safe rooms designed to protect children and teachers, despite state warnings that the absence of such facilities imperils lives.

At least two other schools in Moore -- the epicenter of the disaster -- did have safe rooms. So far no fatalities have been tied to those schools, whose buildings were fortified after a devastating twister hit the area in 1999.

These disparities in structural standards speak to the seeming randomness of who lived and who died in a natural disaster now blamed for taking the lives of at least 24 people, including nine children. Requirements for safe rooms in public schools vary from community to community across the swath of Midwestern and Southern states so accustomed to lethal twisters that it is known as Tornado Alley.

In Oklahoma and in bordering states, land-use regulations are often derided as unnecessary government intrusions. State building codes do not require that schools provide safe rooms, leaving the decision to individual 


Youth Health/Behavior Survey Results

From the district webpage (with links to all the info/surveys):

Results of recent state and federal surveys of health- and risk-related behavior among Seattle Public Schools middle and high school students provide a snapshot of everything from drug use and sexual behavior to how often they eat fruit and vegetables and watch television.

The state-funded Healthy Youth Survey is taken every two years by students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 and focuses on attitudes and health risk behaviors. Topics include gangs, physical activity, suicide, sexual activity, bullying and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use.

The federal CDC-funded Youth Risk Behavior Survey, also conducted every two years, surveys students ingrades 9-12, with a focus on health risk behaviors that result in unintentional injuries and violence; tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors that contribute to HIV infection; other sexually transmitted