Be Careful Out There

School can be hazardous to a teen’s health, according to the government’s first nationwide survey of schoolyard violence.

More than one in 10 high school students said they carried a weapon on school property, and nearly one-fourth of those surveyed said they were offered, sold or given drugs on campus.

About 16,000 students in grades nine through 12 in public and private schools were asked about school-related violence - as well as sex, exercise, diet and smoking - in the 1993 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results were released Thursday.

The findings:

11.8 percent of those surveyed carried weapons on campus in the previous month.

24 percent said they were offered, sold or given an illegal drug at school in the previous year.

16.2 percent said they had been in a fight at school in the previous year.

7.3 percent were threatened or injured with a weapon while at school.

4.4 percent of students skipped school at least one day in the previous month because they felt unsafe.

“Even students who don’t engage in that are exposed to violence,” said one of the report’s authors, Laura Kann of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health.