SURVEY PLANNED TO POLL AREA YOUTHS ON TOPICAL ISSUES.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer

The city's Youth Council is moving forward with plans to survey the emotional health of young people after members voted unanimously to ask the school district whether they could poll high school English students.

The youth-run council will send a letter to the Simi Valley Unified School District possibly next month, once city officials sign off on the letter, as they have the survey.

``When we can say unanimously the Youth Council voted for it, that has to say something about how the youth feel on the issue,'' said student Sarah Asplin, a high school junior and leader of the survey project. ``I think what's really cool is it's the first time we unanimously agreed on something all year long.''

The students have said they want to conduct the wide-reaching poll of their peers to determine what kinds of mental health or substance abuse counseling services the city could offer young people.

School board members have given the survey idea a mixed response, with some saying it would be a helpful tool in assessing young people's needs and others wanting more information on the project.

The Simi Valley students have drafted a two-page ``Youth Council Teen Crisis Survey'' which questions students on issues from drug use to sexual activity, and asks whether students would use free counseling services. The students hope to reach about 280 teens in the anonymous survey at the district's four high schools.

Members of the City Council-appointed Youth Council hope the survey will help meet the needs of young people in what crime statistics indicate is one of the nation's safest cities.

``You have to work really hard to maintain being the safest city,'' Asplin said. ``Even though you're called the safest city, take the time to make sure it remains that way.''

In the Conejo Valley Unified School District, a similar survey that questions drug-related issues among students has been conducted annually by adults in the district for nearly 20 years, officials said.

In other action at Tuesday's meeting, the Youth Council established three goals it hopes to carry over when the newly appointed members of the 22-student council join at the next meeting in November.

The students agreed to continue working on the survey and two other issues for the coming one-year term:

Traffic safety at Royal High School, where a student was critically injured earlier this school year after being hit while walking in a crosswalk in front of the school.

Restroom facilities. The students decided to again ask the Simi Valley school district what young people could do to help keep restroom facilities clean and well-stocked with paper supplies.

In September, the council was told the district would be responding to its June letter about the restroom issue, but students still have not received a reply.

School officials at the time had assured the students a reply would be on its way, and were concerned that the district had not yet responded to students. The students agreed to resubmit the letter to the new superintendent.