Published: Thursday, March 4, 2010

Staff Reports
WAAY 31

This Spring, students around Alabama will take time out of their studies to answer some tough questions.

It's called the "Pride Survey" and it has nothing to do with school spirit. Questionnaires are filled with serious questions about guns, drugs, alcohol, gangs and more. It's nothing new. Students in Alabama have been filling out the survey for years.

In Madison, the survey was taken about 9 months before the Discovery Middle shooting. About 3,500 Madison 6th-12th graders participated in the survey. What they said may be shocking. Of those who responded, more than a thousand reported threatening or harmful behavior from their peers; 838 said they were afraid another student would hurt them at school.

Based on the 2009 responses, schools are now randomly locked down and the students searched for weapons. Still - some children say they never feel safe at school. According to the survey, the top four places they feel most vulnerable are the school bus, the parking lot, the playground, and even the bathroom.

"It's usually an indication of what the kids are talking about," says Bobby Jackson, an administrator from Madison City Schools. "You hope that they're telling the truth about things going on in their lives, and it helps us to see where theremay be problems we need to work on."

Before the shooting on Feb. 5, few people would have thought that gangs were a problem in Madison. But, the survey shows otherwise. The survey shows 338 students said they were involved in gangs. 171 said they had carried a gun to school. Still, Jackson says that's actually an improvement over past years.

Nearly 3,300 reported being on the receiving end of threatening or harmful behavior. More than 1,200 said they were involved with a gang.