6
Wednesday, August 6, 2003
Survey: teenagers value family time
By Ben Feller
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Meet the parents: role
models, confidants, weekend buddies.
Not a bad list of labels, especially since it came
from the kids.
Almost 75 percent of high school students say
they get along very well or even extremely well
with their parents or guardians, a new survey
found. Most of the rest call the relationship “just
OK,” and only 3 percent say they and their parents
don’t get along well.
Overall, teenagers have a lot more admiration
than animosity for family members, despite popu
lar notions to the contrary, “The State of Our
Nation’s Youth” survey says.
“Even though it’s a time when I’m supposed to
be going off on my own, I still like the fact that my
parents are there to help,” said Anya Edun of
Pembroke Pines, Fla., who took part in the survey
before graduating high school in June.
“They have experienced so much; they’re my
number one resource to the real world,” Edun said.
The Horatio Alger Association, which provides
college scholarships and mentoring to needy stu
dents, issued the annual report on youth attitudes
Tuesday. Conducted in April and May, the phone
survey was given to 1,055 high school students,
most of them 14 to 18 years old.
Consider this family portrait: Asked how
they’d like to spend more time, more teens chose
being with their families over relaxing with
friends, playing sports or anything else.
That’s no surprise to Edun, who will start class
es this month at the University of Miami.
“Hanging out with your family, that's not a bad
thing anymore,” Edun said. “When you're with
POLL r
Teens value family in spite of stereotype
According to "The State of our Nation's Youth" annual survey,
most teenagers get along well with their families.
My parents/guardians and I
get along ...
Not well - 3% -] Extremely well
Just okay
47%
'(sty well
If I could, I would spend
more time ...
With family 50%
With friends |M$ 44%
Working out/ HMN|22%
playing sports
At paying job wHtfl 17%
Studying Hi 9%
I hang out/spend most of my
time with ...
My family
With religious Hi 8%
group
Listening to 1(6%
music
Volunteering H6%
Surfing Internet 13%
Watching TV H %
SOURCE: Horatio Algar Association
AP
family, you are participating in sports or playing
family games. And honestly, when 1 call my-
friends on the weekend, they’ll say, T, too, am
going out to dinner with family.’”
Teens put family members atop their list of role
models, far ahead of entertainers and athletes, and
more than nine in 10 said they have at least one
family member to confide in.
Such attitudes prevail even as teens are sur
rounded by bad news, from war in Iraq to scandals
in business and the church, said Peter Hart, whose
research company wrote the report.
“During all of the turmoil and change, instead
of isolating themselves, I think they’ve drawn
themselves back toward family,” Hart said.
Even the disputes teens have with their parents
aren't of great consequence, the survey finds. The
most common argument, teens say, is over clean
ing their rooms. In a boom time for bellybutton
rings and tattoos, only 4 percent of fights are about
student appearance.
The findings should be encouraging to busy
parents, but they also constitute a warning, Hart
said.
“The kids who are in high school are telling
parents, ‘We’re listening to you, we care about
what you think, and we’d like to spend more time
with you,”' Hart said.
Academic demands put the most stress on stu
dents, more so than family squabbles, financial
worries or social pressures, the survey says.
Asked about pressure to get good grades, 42 per
cent of students called it a major problem, up from
26 percent two years ago. The largest increases were
among black students, sophomores and juniors.
Among other findings from the survey:
—Almost half of students said they have solid
or strong confidence in Congress. Only 26 percent
said the same about the media.
—Fifty-eight percent of students said they have
their own television, and 45 percent have their
own cell phone. Almost every student reported
access to a computer in the home.
—Fewer than 10 percent of students said pres
sure to do drugs or to have sex before they’re
ready is a major problem.
—Forty-seven percent of students report
spending six or more hours per week on home
work, up from 37 percent last year.
—Sixty percent of students say standardized
tests are a good way to measure their progress.
Last year, 65 percent thought such tests were a
good idea.
The poll had an error margin of plus or minus 3
percentage points.
NASA won’t challenge any recommendations
By Mike Schneider
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
NASA will not challenge any of the
recommendations to be issued by
the board that investigated the loss
of space shuttle Columbia, the
agency’s deputy administrator said
Tuesday.
However, deputy administrator
Fred Gregory and two other NASA
officials were unwilling to talk pub
licly about what is likely to be the
board’s most far-reaching recommen
dation: changing NASA’s culture.
Gregory, associate administrator
for space flight Bill Readdy and
associate administrator for safety
Bryan O’Connor spoke at a news
conference Tuesday while visiting
the Kennedy Space Center for dis
cussions on how NASA is preparing
to return the space shuttle fleet to
service.
The window for launching a shut
tle is March 11 to April 6, they said
for the first time.
“Is March ambitious? Probably,”
Readdy said.
They met with members of the
Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task
Group, a 27-member body chartered
to help the agency implement the final
recommendations of the Columbia
Accident Investigation Board.
The task group is scheduled to
meet Wednesday with the accident
board chairman, retired Navy Adm.
Harold Gehman Jr., and hold its first
public meeting Thursday.
“There will be no attempt whatso
ever to argue or defend a recommen
dation from the CAIB,” Gregory
said. “The board has not published
the report yet and I may have to back
off a little bit... but my assumption is
that we would follow to the letter the
recommendations.”
Columbia was destroyed during
re-entry on Feb. 1, killing all seven
astronauts on board. The disaster has
been blamed on a piece of foam insu
lation that broke off the external fuel
tank during liftoff and caused a hole
in the left wing.
The board’s recommendations are
expected to be issued at the end of
the month.
Some investigation board mem
bers have said publicly that the rec
ommendations will be fruitless if
NASA doesn’t change its culture for
decision-making.
Board members and former
NASA employees have pointed to
attitudes of superiority, fear of retri
bution by lower-level employees,
communications problems and
strained relationships between key
divisions of NASA as part of its dif
ficult culture.
NEWS
THE BATTALION
Dewhurst:
legal action
may come
By Natalie Gott
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
r
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Volume II
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — With 11
Democrats staging a boycott of the Texas
Senate over congressional redistricting, Li.
Gov. David Dewhurst warned Tuesday that he
may turn to legal action to force them toreturo
to the state.
“I'm not going to discuss our legal options,
But it's very, very clear that there are a number
of things we can do to compel the attendanceof
the absent members," Dewhurst told reporters
in Austin.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio,
who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, said
she couldn’t comment until she sees what
Dewhurst does.
"We certainly worked with him during the
regular session but another persona seems to be
emerging during this special session,” Van de
Putte said from the hotel the lawmakers are
staying at in Albuquerque, out of reach from the
Senate sergeant-at-arms, who can compel the
senators to return to the Capitol.
Dewhurst. a Republican who presides over
the Texas Senate, said consideration of a law
suit is not a threat.
But he also said, directing his comments to
the absent senators: "If you don't come back in
a timely fashion we’re going to be forced to
look at other options, including legal options,
And don’t put us into that position.”
The Democrats, themselves, have been con
sidering legal options, although when asked about
any plans to file a lawsuit, they are vague, saying
only that they are keeping their options open,
The Senate Democrats say they are resolved
to blocking congressional redistricting. Their
absence at the Capitol has brought the Senate to
a standstill for more than week because nol
enough senators are present to make a quorum.
Republicans, led by U.S. House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, have been pushing for stale
lawmakers to redraw the state's congressional
boundaries, saying voting trends show the state
should have more GOP representation in
Washington. Democrats outnumber
Republicans 17-15 in the delegation.
The Senate Democrats fled Texas shortly
before Republican Gov. Rick Perry called asec-
ond special legislative session on redistrictine,
after the issue failed in two previous sessions.
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Security
Continued from page 1
“They’re going to be subject
to extraordinary scrutiny,”
Stempler said. But, he added, “I’d
be disappointed if they weren’t
doing anything different, given
these warnings.”
The advisory was the latest
effort to tighten security since the
government publicly warned on
July 28 that terrorists may try
more suicide hijackings.
The departments of State and
Homeland Security suspended
two programs that allowed for
eigners to stay in U.S. airports
without visas while awaiting
flights to other countries. The
State Department also revised an
existing caution for American
travelers to reflect the perceived
hijacking threat.
Michael Cherkasky, a for
mer New York state prosecutor
who was involved in the first
World Trade Center bombing
case, said the recent warning
was no surprise since terrorists
have for years tried — and
sometimes succeeded — to
blow up planes by hiding
bombs in electronics.
“It’s in the al-Qaida manual,”
he said. “It’s not a shock.”
A thumbnail-sized circuit
board inside a radio detonated
the bomb that blew up Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland, in 1988.
Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of
the 1993 bombing of the World
Trade Center in New York City,
plotted to simultaneously blow
up 11 airliners by smuggling
parts of bombs onto each airplane
and assembling them in the lava
tories, Cherkasky said.
“If they do it well, it’s extraor
dinarily difficult to detect,"
Cherkasky said. Closer scrutiny
of electronics is just one way that
a many-layered system of airport
security can detect a sophistical-
ed plot, he said.
Airlines have struggled to
regain passengers since the
Sept. 11 attacks. Darryl Jenkins,
head of George Washington
University’s Aviation Institute,
said the terror warnings will
keep people from flying during
what should be the peak sum
mer travel season.
“None of this is good,"
Jenkins said. “These are not the
kinds of things that cause people
to book trips.”
Diana Cronan, spokeswoman
for the Air Transport Association,
the trade group for major airlines,
said, “We are trying to work
together with Homeland
Security.”
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