washingtonpost.com
Fairfax Cancels Student Survey on Sex, Drugs
Company Distributing the Questionnaire Feared Angry Parents Might File Lawsuits
By S. Mitra Kalita
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 23, 2003; Page B08
A controversial survey asking Fairfax County students about their experiences with alcohol, drugs and sex has been canceled because the company hired to administer it feared that parents might sue.
The wide-ranging survey was to be distributed next week to 10,000 randomly chosen students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades to gauge levels of risky behavior among Fairfax County youth.
But Channing Bete Co., a Massachusetts-based publishing and survey company, asked the county to absolve it of any potential legal risk -- and county attorneys say Virginia law makes that impossible.
The survey, hotly protested by many parents, included more than 100 questions on such topics as smoking, suicide, weight loss and family relationships. Participation was to be voluntary, and the questions about sexual behaviorwere to be asked only of sophomores and seniors. continue
Apr 23, 2003
Student sex survey canceled
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) _ A survey asking Fairfax County students about their experiences with drugs, alcohol and sex has been canceled because the company hired to administer the survey feared that parents might sue.
The survey, intended to gauge levels of risky behavior among Fairfax youth, was scheduled to be distributed next week to 10,000 randomly chosen students in sixth, 10th and 12th grades.
But Channing Bete Co., a Massachusetts survey and publishing company, asked the county to absolve it of any potential legal risk, and county attorneys say Virginia law makes that impossible.
Participation in the survey, which has been protested by parents, was to be voluntary. Question topics were to include smoking, suicide and family relationships. The questions about sexual behavior, added for the first time this year, were only to be on surveys handed out to sophomores and seniors.
The sex questions included: "How old were you when you first had sex?" and "Have you ever had oral sex?"
Michael Bete, president of Channing Bete, said the firm does not usually ask questions about students' sexual behavior. Fairfax officials had asked for the questions on sex as an important indicator of risky behavior among the county's teens.
Fairfax County officials use the survey to develop health curriculums and apply for grants, and they said they tried to persuade the company not to withdraw.
"We would have agreed to cover them if there was something in our error, such as accidentally distributing a test to the wrong student," said Karen Harwood, deputy attorney for Fairfax County. "But it was a business decision on their part."
A similar survey in northern New Jersey prompted parents to sue the company that administered the questionnaires without their permission. New Jersey now requires parental consent before students take tests or surveys that ask for family, medical, financial or political information.