Local parents who opted their kids out of a student survey about sexual activity and gender activity are “livid” after the district still gave the survey to them.
Burlington parents have now filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education in the wake of survey-gate, claiming the district violated the “Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment” by giving the questionnaire to students against their parents’ wishes.
The controversial survey last month that was given to both middle and high school students in Burlington Public Schools had questions about: sexual intercourse, sexual orientation, gender identity, sexting, experiences with sexual assault, alcohol use, and more.
“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?” reads one of the survey questions to the middle and high schoolers.
Students whose parents had opted them out of the “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” were still required to take the survey, leading to outraged parents filing complaints with the feds.
“Rightfully, parents were livid,” Jessica Richardson, of the Massachusetts Family Institute, wrote about the situation. “Not only were these graphic and leading questions wildly inappropriate for students as young as 6th grade, but the blatant disregard for parental opt-out requests was a serious violation of trust and parental rights.”
The Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center submitted the complaints 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.
“Asking an 11-year-old kid questions about anal or oral sex is disgusting,” Hanafin wrote. “There is no benefit to this… I was assured that my kids were opted out of these exercises for good.”
His kid felt “sick to his stomach” when he was required to take the survey, he added.
“Why are you exposing him to this?” Hanafin asked in the email.
Also, the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center wrote a letter to the Burlington superintendent and school committee this week, calling for changes to prevent this in the future.
“This egregious violation of parental and student rights transgressed federal law,” wrote Sam Whiting of the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center. “On behalf of these parents, we demand that BPS hold accountable those responsible for this violation and take steps to ensure that this never happens again.”
The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment gives parents a chance to opt their children out of participating in surveys.
The school district has “clearly violated” this federal law, said Whiting who gave a list of “demands” to the district.
“Ensure accountability for those responsible for this incident, up to and including terminating them from their employment,” Whiting wrote.
“Revise BPS policies to prevent inappropriate and intrusive surveys from being administered to students which cover sensitive topics such as sexual behavior, drug and alcohol use, sexual orientation and gender identity, family problems, antisocial or incriminating behavior, etc., as listed in the PPRA,” he added.
The district should require all staff and administrators to undergo PPRA training, Whiting said.
“BPS can take the first steps to reforming its educational culture and respecting parental rights by complying with the demands above,” he wrote. “In doing so, it will avoid further jeopardizing its federal funding and will ensure the success of its student body. We sincerely hope that this will be the start of a productive dialogue between the BPS administration and parents who feel that their concerns have thus far been ignored. We look forward to BPS taking swift action to correct this situation.”
The district is in the process of responding to the Department of Education complaints, according to the Burlington superintendent.
“The school committee has voted to stop all student surveys until the committee develops a more comprehensive policy on their purpose, and if approved, on their implementation,” Superintendent Eric Conti said in a statement. “This work is ongoing.”
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