GREEN COVE SPRINGS – When Aaliyah (Devin) Callahan enrolled at Clay High after being home-schooled for three years, she was terrified by what she saw. The restrooms were filled with vape smoke and there were several mentions of drug use.

“It hit me like a truck,” she said. “I was surprised seeing it in high school.”

That gave Callahan an idea for this year’s Clay Rotary Science and Engineering Fair. She posted a questionnaire on social media and placed QR codes on the walls at the school to solicit information about the connection between anxiety and drug use.

The message was: “Are you diagnosed with anxiety? Do you partake in drug use? (EX. weed, nicotine, alcohol, methamphetamines, ect.?)

“The school let me put up the QR codes and everything was anonymous,” Callahan said. “I also put a Google Form on social media and kept it up for two weeks and four days. I cut it off at 150 people.”

Callahan broke down her results to include boys, girls and others. Her results were telling: Anxiety does increase the chance of drug use.

Judges liked her method, experiment, hypothesis and conclusion enough to give her the second-place award Tuesday in the Combined Behavioral, Social, Biomedical and Health Science category.

This year’s science fair attracted 109 entries at the Clay County Fairgrounds. Winners were announced Wednesday night at Orange Park High.

“These projects are so impressive,” said Superintendent David Broskie. “It’s amazing how they come up with these ideas. We certainly have a lot of talented students in this county.”