Parents of Vashon High School students received an email from Principal Danny Rock last week, indicating that there had been multiple incidents involving students who had been using potent substances at school.

“What we are experiencing is the sharing and consuming of Xanax, sometimes on its own and other times in combination with Everclear (95 percent proof, odorless liquor). Students who have been observed and confirmed under the influence at school were reported by multiple staff members as well as other students,” he wrote in the email he sent last Thursday.

During an interview Monday, Rock explained that one day last week, “multiple” students were in an impaired state and were reported to him. For confidentiality reasons, he did not want to give the exact number, but said it was more than one and less than 10. They were found to have taken Xanax — or alprazolam — which is a prescription drug used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. Rock noted that those students had only taken Xanax and had not combined it with the alcohol. However, a parent reported to him that many students were, at other times, also consuming Everclear with the drug.

“Because of how dangerous that combination is, and it (Everclear) can avoid detection more easily, I wanted to put that in the email and get it out to families right away,” he said.

The email got many parents’ attention, but he added that his email is a different approach to communicating about alcohol and drug use at the school, not necessarily a sign that there is a larger problem than in previous years. He noted that in his time at the school, he has not had a similar incident, where a large group of students was obviously impaired — a comment he said he meant to be reassuring.

“Our problem is not that students are getting obviously and dramatically high during the school day, so when it did happen, it was immediately obvious and acted upon,” he added.

According to the information students have provided in the Healthy Use Survey, substance use occurs in a minority of students up until grade 10, when use increases dramatically. By 11th grade, it goes up to half of the students, and by senior year, between 60 and 65 percent of students report using drugs or alcohol, he said.

“That is what the Healthy Youth Survey data shows. How accurate that is is up for discussion,” he added.

Most of the feedback Rock has heard from parents about his email has been positive, he said, although some people have expressed concern about the school and what the information reveals about it.

“I do not believe we are looking at some higher percentage of use than we have had before,” he reiterated. “Shining a light on these behaviors means we are engaged as a school and seeking engagement from our community and families on something that is a perennial issue.”

When he was hired in 2013, he said, one of the issues he was told people wanted him to address was the high rate of substance use at the school. It has taken some time to get to this place, and Rock called it a natural part of the growth of the school, with staff members beginning to take more deliberate and transparent action last year. He added he plans to continue communicating about what he is seeing.

“The more we shine a light on behaviors of concern, the more we can have a productive conversation and take the shame out of hiding it,” he said.

In Rock’s email, he noted the seriousness of the situation, including that both substances are dangerous and illegal drugs for students to possess, use or be in the presence of others using. Additionally, he noted that the sharing of prescription drugs is a felony and that the combination of an anti-anxiety medication and alcohol is extremely dangerous.

At Vashon Pharmacy, Dave Willingham, a pharmacist and one of the co-owners of the business, underscored the potential seriousness of this issue.

Xanax is a controlled substance with potential for abuse and addiction and is one of the worst drugs to get hooked on, he said.

“It takes a long time and a lot of suffering to get off this drug,” he added. “This is not a drug to play around with for a high.”

He said that those with a genetic predisposition to addiction could become addicted in one or two doses, while others could take it for a year and stop.

He cautioned also about taking Xanax with Everclear, both of which are depressants.

“You are adding two fires together; you could get burned,” he said. “There is nothing good to come of this mixture.”

Like Rock, he encourages people with prescription drugs to lock them up. Every week or two at the pharmacy, he said, people report that their medications have been stolen from their medicine cabinet, purse or backpack.

“It’s a big problem on Vashon,” he said.