"It's alarming. I don't know that I was prepared to see that number," said Theresa Campbell, the school district's Safe Schools manager.

The survey asked 14,000 students in Surrey's 18 secondary schools about their drug and alcohol use during the 2004/2005 school year.

Nine per cent, or 1,260 students, said they had used crystal meth off school grounds, while seven per cent, about 980 students, admitted to using the highly addictive drug on school property.

But the most disturbing answers came from Surrey's youngest high school students. According to Campbell, four per cent of Grade 8s and three per cent of Grade 9s said they used crystal meth more than once a week.

"I'm hoping that ( hearing ) these numbers will help awaken parents to the seriousness of the usage. If those students are making those choices in Grade 8, we've got to make sure we get to them in the earlier grades," she said, adding that the district plans to expand its drug awareness programs in Surrey's elementary schools.

"We're taking it seriously because it's a dead serious problem," said school board chairman Shawn Wilson.

"It's concerning that students are using crystal meth at all, whether they're on school property or not."

Wilson said recent school district projects like the Protecting Surrey Schools Together ( PSST ) website, which allows students to report incidents of drug use and bullying anonymously, will lessen drug use among Surrey's school-aged kids.

"Next time we conduct a survey I think we'll see better results."

Campbell said the district will continue to work with the Surrey RCMP's youth section to stop drug dealers from preying on students.

"The Surrey RCMP have played a big part in addressing youth that may be potentials for dealing around school," she said.

Chief Supt. Fraser MacCrae of the Surrey RCMP said meth use among young people is the "scariest" part of Surrey's meth problem.

"These are people who haven't had a chance to make a lot of the big choices in their lives doing something that's extremely dangerous," said McCrae in a Now interview.

In Victoria last month, 13-year-old Mercedes-Rae Clarke died after ingesting what is believed to be crystal meth.

The survey also asked students about their marijuana use; 20 per cent said they had used pot during the last school year, and 14 per cent said they had purchased drugs on school property. The results were roughly the same as those of a similar 2002 survey.