Parents press board to cancel sex survey (Virginia)

Washington Times ^ | Wednesday, January 22, 2003 | By Jon Ward

[JohnHuang2]

Fairfax County parents, upset about a school district plan to administer a sex survey to high school sophomores and seniors, are asking the county's Board of Supervisors, which is paying for the study, to quash the questionnaire.

"The schools are getting out of control," said Karen Budd, an Oakton mother of two. Her younger child attends a public middle school and her elder child attends a private Catholic high school. "They are assuming parents' responsibilities, and parents are letting them," she said.

[m18436572]

"There must be extreme dangers present to resort to banning."
Then, what is the extreme danger that got prayer banned in public schools?

[Political Junkie Too]

In my mind, it shouldn't have been. The difference between prayer and sex is that religion is mentioned in the Constitution, and sex is not.

That mention is enough to give ammunition to the left to fight what they see as an extreme threat.

-PJ

[G Larry]

Yes, "necessarily"!
Especially on this subject.

Think back to when you were 15.
Imagine the implication if the faculty presented a survey, such as this.

"They wouldn't ask these multiple, detailed questions if they didn't think 'most' kids were active."
...would be the most natural reaction of a 15 year old.

[Adder]

Why are they being subjected to this survey at all? They are in school to get an education, not to enable some researcher to spend grant money. They are captive guinea pigs, under pressure to participate irregardless of the opt-out proviso. Re your smoking and drinking surveys, yes those would be objectionable for the same reason. Schools are not little social labs for the jollies of researchers.
Besides, behavior can be influenced by these surveys: its pretty easy to construct questions that reflect negatively on behavior... some about racial attitudes or drinking or smoking.

[Ligeia]

except I would add . . . .

After thinking about it, I would also add that Dranesville should be represented by a conservative. Most of those precincts vote heavily GOP in every election except school board. The problem with school board elections is voters are swayed by PTA participation and most conservatives don't care for the PTA since it has such a pro-sexual promiscuity agenda for students. They shy away from the PTA beyond their own school's fundraisers and Fun Fairs.

The candidates who win are liberal PTA activists. Very few parents are tuned in enough to be aware of the resolutions passed by the County Council of PTA's, the state PTA, or the National PTA. If they did, I'd like to think they'd be appalled and chase those screwballs out of town.

[Chemist_Geek]

in loco parentis, or does anyone recognize that doctrine anymore?

[ladylib]

I believe that means that the school has responsibility for the child when the child is in school.

That doesn't give the school the right to expect students to take a survey regarding sex, drugs, or whether they like vanilla ice cream just because they are on school grounds.

It would be interesting to see if the survey is funded with federal dollars in any way.

[m18436572]

I would rather not have the schools discuss this with my kids. That is something that is taken care of at home (atleast where I come from). The parents' obligation. Part of the home training thing I guess. I'm not sure how comfortable I would be with this sort of thing being discussed with my kids. MY kids. not the schools or the gov., or the ...
Call me a prude, but I am responsible for my kids until they are 18. Not the school. I send them to school to get an education. Heck, I even pay taxes for it. I don't pay for them to go & take surveys about their sex lives. The two are NOT related.

[Political Junkie Too]

I don't think it should be discussed in the schools either. I just don't think that getting the government to ban it is what it's going to take to stop it. I hope parents and community leaders have enough clout to put an end to it, but maybe I'm being naive.

-PJ

[babylonian]

Americans are too cowed to do anything about anything. We sit aroung talking about this when we should be storming the school boards, en masse.

[auboy]

**In April 2002, the Board of Supervisors approved the sex survey as a follow-up to a January 2001 study of 11,332 randomly chosen middle school and high school students. That survey and the latest questionnaire are designed to help the county and the school district tailor curriculums and programs to prevent "youth risk behaviors."**

Total B.S. Public education needs to be spending their funds on teaching students to read and write, add and subtract, deductive reasoning, etc. Subjects that will help future adults earn a good living one day.

Today's public education has far too many administrators and not enough quality core subject matter teachers. Most of these administrators are more concerned with working on their post-graduate degrees and making the job of the classroom teacher more difficult than in educating today's student. What they're after is more prestige and draining away more money from budgets already strapped for cash. Fat does rise to the top.

This survey is part of that fat. Are they planning to spend school time to administer their survey? Time that could be better spent by teachers and students to actually learn something meaningful. You want a survey? Go to the mall and set up a booth.

As for the census… they can know I'm alive, where I live and how many people live there. Anything else is none of their business!

[ladylib]

Well, several women in Ridgewood, NJ, decided to do something about intrusive student surveys and "passive consent." They took it to federal court, where it was thrown out, for whatever reason no one knows because the judge's decision didn't make any sense, and then they took it to the state legislature where they got legislation passed in their favor.

Of course they were ridiculed in the press, the school, and in their town but they prevailed.

[Shethink13]

Let me guess, you're opposed to the Census, too?

Huh? Guess I'm slow, because that makes no sense to me.

[EverOnward]

I think the supervisors should answer the questionnaire and make it public -- as an example, or course.

My last child attends Chantilly H.S. -- what a mess.

The principal thought it was amusing when she was told that the "future business leaders of tomorrow" (all from Chantilly H.S.) were not chaperoned properly (the two business teachers -- no parents -- basically left the kids on their own) on their trip to Philadelphia where they paid street people to purchase every kind of liquor you could think of, set up a bar in their hotel room and proceeded to get dead drunk. It seems the parents paid over $340 for their child to hear "the power of yes" and some May Kay Causmetics sales pitch along with the hangover.

So much for our future business leaders.

[edwin hubble]

Thanks, Ligeia, for the ping.

At the core of all these efforts is the attempt to take the power and authority from parents, (It takes a village),

and to place the power and authority in the 'village experts'.

[Ligeia]

Chantilly H.S. -- what a mess.

The reputation of Chantilly HS is that it has always been a mess. It was built in the '70's and days of schools with no walls because some knucklehead in some ivory tower someplace thought it would be conducive to learning to have students all in one room?!? Just thinking about the noisy distractions causes my head to spin. The principal sounds unfit for her position if she found the Philadelphia shenanigans 'amusing.' Godspeed til graduation!

[Adder]

So kids belong to the schools and the parents should just shut up and let the schools do whatever they wish because they are, of course, the educational professionals? I am not sure the doctrine of in loco parentis applies here but I could be wrong.

[Ligeia]

At the core of all these efforts is the attempt to take the power and authority from parents

Yes, I agree. That's why citizens should fight back. Only 30% of households in Fairfax County have children in the public school system, but there's reason for the 70% to be concerned about the left's efforts as well.

[Ligeia]

More proof the Dems need to be sent packing. It's the Democrat members of the Board of Supervisors who are pushing this survey along with the Dem school board members. I can't get to the entire column in the Journal, but here's the first paragraph giving an update

Not even close

THE FAIRFAX COUNTY Board of Supervisors voted along party lines Monday to support a School Board initiative prying into the supposed sex lives of county students, with Democrats for and Republicans against.

The survey has been broadened from previous years to include questions about the number of sexual partners and (in an ever-so-trendy effort to be hip) the oral sex habits of teenagers.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

[BufordP]

I found this website for some of the news journals in our area. Check it out:

Northern Virginia

I'm still looking to see if I can find a website that's reporting on this and providing the full story without a fee requirement.