Sex survey riles middle school

I'm not sure they should so concerned over the questions, wait till they see the answer. Reality will hit for sure!

6-15-2011 Massachusetts:

Issue of consent at forefront

FITCHBURG — Memorial Middle School Principal Francis G. Thomas said yesterday he has no control over the process of students at the school taking a risk behavior survey that some parents feel contains overtly intimate and sexually suggestive questions.

“I have no control over the process or content,” he said. “Whether I oppose it or not, it’s not my decision. I was told to give it on a particular day and I said, ‘OK.’ ”

He said he also feels students do not answer questions honestly and it puts the district in a bad light.

Mr. Thomas said if it were up to him, students would not be taking the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which asks questions such as:

“Have you ever tried to kill yourself?”

“Have you ever sniffed glue, or breathed the contents of spray cans, or inhaled any paints?”

“With how many people have you had sexual intercourse?”

Another survey, the Youth Program Survey, is given to older students at the school and asks true or false questions such as “I feel comfortable talking with any partner I have about using a condom,” and “I have had oral sex at some point in my life.”

The surveys — taken by Fitchburg students anonymously every other year — were created and are distributed by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 45 states to help monitor priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults, according to the CDC website.

Federal and state funding is provided to communities to help promote health initiatives based on data collected.

“If it was optional, I wouldn’t have done it,” said Mr. Thomas. “I don’t know who the funding comes to, but it doesn’t benefit me.”

In Fitchburg, Gordon L. Benson, chief executive of LUK Inc., said his agency works collaboratively with Fitchburg Public Schools to administer the survey and with other districts in Central Massachusetts. In the last five years, he said over a dozen districts have participated in the survey administered by LUK.

“Districts use it in different ways,” he explained. “The whole purpose of doing YRBS is to improve health conditions of youth and support them in their development. There is importance for every community in terms of addressing risk issues for youth.”

The issue became heated in Fitchburg when Arlene Tessitore, a parent with two daughters in Grades 7 and 8 at Memorial Middle School, contacted the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville, Va., that provides free legal counsel in constitutional rights cases.

With the organization’s assistance, Ms. Tessitore filed a complaint with the Department of Education over administering the survey without parents’ knowledge or written consent.

The complaint alleges that the school district violated federal law by using a “passive” parental consent procedure rather than obtaining actual written consents.

“Every school district has used passive consent,” said Mr. Benson. “I can’t speak to the legal aspects of this. I’m not an attorney. School districts have done their due diligence for what is legal and appropriate to do.”

John W. Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, said if the district published the survey on its website for parents to review and officials informed students of their rights and asked parents for written permission to allow their children to take the surveys, there would not be a problem.

“First, it’s not anonymous,” he said. “They have to give their first name and last initial, and the month and year they were born in. If you ask a child if they ever tried to commit suicide, it would be difficult to keep that anonymous. It’s a way to identify a troubled student if they wanted to.”

Some of the questions, explained Mr. Whitehead, can be self-incriminating.

“It is basic legal protection of American citizens to have a lawyer present for some answers,” he said. “They have Fifth Amendment rights as well. They are not told these things. If you’re walking along the street and a police officer stops you and asks if you have smoked marijuana, you have rights — Fifth Amendment rights and the right to a lawyer.”

Moreover, he argues, many children at the middle-school level do not know about some of the issues included on the survey or heard some of the terminology. Some of the questions are suggestive, he says.

“Most people haven’t sniffed glue,” he said. “All these kids need to do is Google it — it’s suggestive. Kids today are really computer savvy. How do you sniff glue? You put it in a sock. We found out how to do it by Googling it.”

He also alleges the survey isn’t really voluntary. In public schools, teachers are authority figures, he said.

“When I was in school, I was afraid of teachers — if they told me to do something, I did it,” he said. “Most parents don’t know their child is being asked these questions. If they did, they wouldn’t be happy.”

Karen A. Keaveny from Lunenburg has two granddaughters in Grades 5 and 6 at the school. She was picking them up for their mother after school yesterday.

“I don’t think they should ask those questions,” she said. “These kids are only 11 and 12. I really feel with this age group parents should know about it. I just don’t think it is acceptable.”

When her granddaughter Kayla A. Keaveny, 12, was asked if she thought students her age knew what some of the terminology was on the survey, she said, “We do.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what ‘oral something’ is,” said her sister Autumn J. Imprescia, 11.

“Good — you don’t have to know that for a while,” Mr. Thomas said.

Kayla said she also thinks most kids lie on the survey.

“Yeah — just to be funny,” she said.

Joseph W. Bisson, 38, of Fitchburg was picking up his daughter Casey M. Bisson, 12, in Grade 7 at the school. Casey said she has taken the survey twice.

“I’m more of a ‘2000 parent’ versus a late 1980s or ’90s parent,” said Mr. Bisson. “I think it is a good thing for communities, even if we don’t get to see it. I think it is good all around for school systems to know if there is a problem and they need to do something. It is a way to prevent a child from causing harm to himself or making wrong choices if there are programs to help educate. I went to Memorial Middle School and there was nothing to help prepare any of us.”

His daughter, however, said she felt uncomfortable taking the survey.

“I felt uncomfortable answering the drug questions and sex questions,” said Casey. “Or, if I ever did coke or weed. Even though they don’t know who took it (the survey), it felt very awkward. I wish I didn’t have to take it. I answered ‘no’ even if I did it. I was nervous. I don’t think kids tell the truth on them.”

The School Committee is discussing the issue and whether changes to the district’s policies regarding parental consent are required.

Superintendent Andre R. Ravenelle didn’t return calls for comment.

“Not getting written permission violates federal law that protects both the child and parents,” said Mr. Whitehead. “We wrote the policy for them. Just follow federal law; otherwise this is going to come up again.” ..Source.. by Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF