The Elly Report: Around the County

Sinister Survey, The Public School's Dirty Little Secret

Parents and grandparents, hold on to your hats! You probably thought that it couldn't get any worse in the public schools after a Lexington parent was arrested for trying to remove his child from a kindergarten class where objectionable material was being presented, and a Saugus family was upset when their second-grader was exposed to explicit sexual material, including the terms "vaginal secretions" and "semen." Well, you better sit down before reading any more.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), an instrument of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is used in the public schools to question students about their sexual behavior. Some local schools have taken this document, added their own questions about oral sex, and introduced it to students as early as the sixth grade! Since 1998, 10 and 11 year-old boys and girls in the Shrewsbury Public Schools have been asked, " Have you ever engaged in oral sex?" "How old were you when you had oral sex for the first time?" "With how many different people have you ever had oral sex?" The same three questions are also asked about sexual intercourse.

Patricia Degon (Head of Physical Education and Health in Shrewsbury) said these questions were added because President Clinton's sexual escapades put the topic of oral sex in the media, and the schools felt that it was their duty then to question students about it. Unfortunately, notifying parents of these "additions" was not considered a priority or duty. Why not? According to Ms. Degon, parents might misinterpret these questions!

Misinterpret sex questions?!? Shrewsbury has a good school system. Apparently the school administrators think it's so good that sixth-graders have been educated to the point where they can understand these questions, but their backward parents are just too ignorant. Give me a break!

It's obvious that there was a deliberate, and until very recently, successful attempt to keep parents in the dark about the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. But now that parents are becoming aware, you'd think that the schools would back away from it. Well, think again. Shrewsbury School Committee members are defending their past and current practice of not allowing parents to have a copy of the survey. Their reason remains the same - parents might misinterpret the questions.

Well, school officials who don't get it, who don't respect either the rights of parents or the children of parents, must be made to respect the votes of parents. What is needed is a clean slate of new elected officials, ones who understand that parents want and need to know what is going on in the schools. We're talking about the values and morality of our children, something near and dear to every parent's heart.

Shrewsbury, Worcester, & Beyond
The same Youth Risk Behavior Survey is not only used in Shrewsbury. This is also being given to students across the US. Worcester starts giving the survey to students in 7th grade, not much better than Shrewsbury's record. And parents in Worcester haven't been made aware of it, either.

Parents everywhere need to contact their local school officials and demand to see the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and other materials the school is using that pertain to human sexuality. Parenting is the job of parents and we need to make sure school officials understand that.

Parents Legislation
There is legislation pending at the Statehouse in Boston that would require schools to obtain prior written approval from parents before children are exposed to this type of explicit material. Such prior notification is often referred to as an "Opt-In" policy. Currently, public schools use an "Opt-Out" policy where you, the parent, have to know what's happening and let the school know you don't want your child to participate. The problem is, our schools aren't telling us what's happening.

Massachusetts House Bill 1050, which has a large co-sponsorship from both liberals and conservatives, would mandate a statewide "Opt-In" policy for public schools. Call your state representatives today and demand that HB 1050 become law. Our children have been subjected to this intrusive and sexually explicit survey far too long.