7 hours Ago By Lance Reynolds
Parents and students in a Massachusetts town say they continue to feel “blindsided,” “betrayed,” and “appalled,” after their local school district sent out a highly graphic survey about sexual and gender activity.Burlington Public Schools has administered a so-called youth risk behavior survey to middle- and high school students since 2012. This year’s assessment prompted a handful of parents to file federal complaints claiming the district violated their rights by giving the questionnaire to their kids against their wishes.
Students at Marshall Simonds Middle School and Burlington High School received a new version of the survey in March, answering questions related to sexual intercourse, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexting, experiences with sexual assault, alcohol use, and other topics.Students whose parents had opted them out were still required to take the survey, leading to outraged parents filing complaints with the feds.Burlington father John Lyons says such topics have no place in schools and is calling the School Committee out for describing the administration of the survey as a mistake.
“This was a gross lapse in judgment,” Lyons said Tuesday night, “a fundamental breach of trust and a failure to uphold the most basic responsibility that falls on this administration: To protect the children in our school system.”“What’s even more alarming is the lack of accountability that has followed,” he added. “No one has stood up and accepted the responsibility.
”Lyons’ comments came at the beginning of a School Committee meeting that drew a packed crowd of frustrated parents and students, including a seventh-grader who called the debacle “disgusting and purely vile.”Committee Chairwoman Melissa Massardo read from a statement she said was prepared by “school counsel,” highlighting how the school district has hired an independent consultant and investigator to review this year’s survey.“Despite these pending issues,” Massardo said, “the school administration did recently send all parents acknowledging that errors and mistakes occurred and that we recognize the critical importance of having clear communication with families, especially regarding parents’ and students’ rights to opt out of such surveys.
”In a memo on the district website on the administration of the survey, officials state they acknowledge there were “areas for improvement, particularly in the opt-out process and delivery of the proctor script.”But parents are not taking the apology seriously. “Quite honestly, we’re sick of hearing that,” said Keri Malm, a mother of two children in the district.
”District officials have also shared that they have backed out of a contract with John Snow, Inc., a public health research firm using validated survey questions from the CDC and other national instruments.Officials have said the survey “helps inform decision making .
.. guiding curriculum design, staffing, student services, and community partnerships.
”The Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center submitted the complaints earlier this month to the Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office on behalf of parents whose children were forced to take the survey after their opt-out requests.Parent David Hanafin is one of those parents. He wrote an email to district officials after his middle-school child was required to take the survey, even though he had opted out.
The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment gives parents a chance to opt their children out of participating in surveys.Christine Scola, whose children went through the town’s schools, which her grandchildren may attend, said students and families are being “blatantly disrespected.”“It’s convenient to gaslight parents who are upset and call them hateful because they are angry, but people have the right to be angry,” she said, “and what we hate is the school system using diversity and equity as a means to highlight the beliefs of some while devaluing the beliefs of others.
”One question specifically asked: “Sexual intercourse includes vaginal sex which is when a penis goes inside of a vagina, oral sex which is contact between the mouth and genitals, anal sex which is when the penis goes inside an anus (butt), and use of toys or props (vaginal or anal). Have you ever had sexual intercourse?”Angela Simoni attended eighth grade at Simonds Middle School last year. She said she has little confidence that the surveys will reflect students’ thoughts and experiences.
“Asking students questions about anal sex and sex toys, they just think it’s funny,” she said. “They’re like ‘Oh, hahaha.’”Jeff Amy/ Associated Press fileA sign stands at an entrance to the main campus of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
(AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File).
