TRI In The News
Massachusetts Middle School Under Fire for Survey Asking Students About Sexual History and Drug Use
6/16/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: MASSACHUSETTS MIDDLE SCHOOL UNDER FIRE FOR SURVEY ASKING STUDENTS ABOUT SEXUAL HISTORY AND DRUG USE
From Masslive
Original article available here.
FITCHBURG, Mass. - Memorial Middle School in Fitchburg, Mass. is taking heat over a survey given to seventh and eighth-grade students asking them explicit questions about their sexual history without their parent's knowledge or consent.
Fox News Radio reported the story on Wednesday after Arlene Tessitore, who has two daughters attending the school, filed a complaint with the civil liberties group The Rutherford Institute.
Tessitore told Fox News Radio that she was outraged after hearing that her daughters were asked about oral sex and pregnancy prevention, among other things.
"There were two surveys distributed to my eighth grader and another one of those surveys asked about her activities in giving oral sex," Tessitore said on Fox and Friends Wednesday. "Some of the questions I don't think can even be posted on TV this morning as it would offend some of the viewers."
The survey was given with the option of parents opting their children out, according to John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. He and Tessitore claim that she never received the "permission slip" of sorts from either of her daughters, who were allegedly forced to take the survey after telling teachers they didn't want to.
"It goes down a whole list including birth control pills, condoms and one of the answers is 'withdraw,'" Whitehead told Fox News Radio. "Adults know what this is, but kids have to imagine or go online to find out what it means."
Whitehead said his organization wrote to the school and didn't hear back and has since appealed to the Department of Education.
Francis G. Thomas, the principal of Memorial Middle School, reportedly said that although the survey is graphic in nature, participation was mandated by a federal grant the district applied for through the social services agency LUK Inc. in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC disputed that the survey was part of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey which monitors "six types of health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults," according to its website.
Whithead and Tessitore have said that they want similar surveys to be given out with the clause that parent's opt in to allow their children to be asked the questions. Whitehead said that if such a change isn't made, they will likely move forward with a lawsuit.
