TRI In The News

Sex Survey Prompts City School to Review Policies

6/22/2011

TRI IN THE NEWS: SEX SURVEY PROMPTS CITY SCHOOL TO REVIEW POLICIES

From Sentinel and Enterprise

Original article available here.

FITCHBURG -- The School Committee Policy Subcommittee is meeting Wednesday to determine if the distribution of a survey given to middle-school students violated federal law and if the school should change any related policies, according to Superintendent of Schools Andre Ravenelle.

On Feb. 1, Arlene Tessitore's two daughters at Memorial Middle School were given the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a voluntary survey that includes questions on drug use, suicide and sexual history. Tessitore claimed she did not give permission for her daughters to take the survey, and they were unfairly pressed into taking the survey by faculty members.

Tessitore did not return a phone call seeking comment by press time.

Ravenelle said Tessitore spoke to the school principal before enlisting the aid of the Rutherford Institute, a self-described civil liberties organization. That organization sent a letter to the School Committee on April 28, saying the questions were inappropriate and violated a federal consent law called the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which forces schools to obtain written parental consent before minor students can participate in any survey funded by the U.S. Department of Education that asks questions about sex, illegal activities or potentially embarrassing subjects.

Nisha Whitehead, spokeswoman for the Rutherford Institute, said parents were given a form to return to opt out of the survey, and unless that form was signed, consent was presumed.

She said this did not meet the legal requirements, which are to obtain written consent from parents.

The survey was administered by LUK Inc., a Central Massachusetts social-service agency, and used a federal grant. A representative of LUK Inc. did not return a phone call by press time.

The Rutherford Institute alleges that when one of Tessitore's daughters declined to take the survey, her teacher told her to speak with the school counselor and take the survey anyway.

On March 29, nearly two months after the first survey and after Tessitore had already spoken to school officials, one of her daughters was told to take the Youth Program Survey, which tests knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases.

This second survey falls under the same federal consent laws, but Tessitore said her daughter was again told to take the survey against her wishes, without written notification, and was referred to the guidance office.

Karen Hunter, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the surveys used in Fitchburg are based on ones written by the CDC that are meant for high-school students, but the CDC has no involvement with the survey given in Fitchburg. Hunter said states are free to modify the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and create their own version.

Jonathan Palumbo, spokesman for the states Executive Office of Education, said when it administers the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, it is given to a random sampling of schools and the list of those schools is confidential, but districts like Fitchburg are free to conduct their own surveys independently, as is the case here.

Ravenelle said Tessitore spoke at the June 2 School Committee meeting about the issue, which was then sent to the policy subcommittee's June 9 meeting. He said the department's attorney, Rebecca Bouchard, was not at that meeting but will attend the follow-up policy subcommittee meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the central office.

"The goal is to come out of this with a policy and a procedure," said Ravenelle.

Bouchard did not return a phone call in time for this story. Ravenelle said he is unaware if the school has broken any federal laws until he hears Bouchard's opinion.

"We're lay people," said Ravenelle. "Our area is education."

Ravenelle said he considers parents to be the department's "partners in education," and the policy subcommittee wants to come up with a new policy and procedure for surveys that is "far reaching and all-encompassing," as well as "clear and concise."