Are you offended by the question posed in the title of this post?
Yeah, me too.
Imagine how much more offended, no outraged, you would be if this same question was posed to your middle school child without your permission.
As you may have guessed, this is not a hypothetical.
A middle school in Massachusetts is under fire for requiring children to complete a graphic sex survey — without parental knowledge or consent — that included questions about sexual partners and oral sex.
The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization, filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Education against the Fitchburg School Committee. They are representing the two middle school-aged daughters of Arlene Tessitore.
Tessitore said her daughters, both students at Memorial Middle School, were told they had to complete a Youth Risk Behavior Study.
“Kids were actually told to sit down and take them,” said John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “The parents here are very upset.”
Whitehead said the girls were deeply disturbed by the subject matter of the study – including questions about suicide, drug use and sexual behavior.
“One of the questions is, ‘have you ever had oral sex,’” Whitehead said. “You’re talking about kids who probably don’t even know what oral sex is.”
He said the survey also delved into even more graphic language.
Back in the day, the appropriate response would have been to go up to the school and punch the principal in the mouth. But the principal in question is your typical amoral bureaucrat who never even imagines that she can say no to the government.
Principal Fran Thomas told Fox News Radio that students were indeed given the survey – and admits it was graphic. But Thomas said the school has nothing to do with the content and they were required to administer the survey to fulfill a grant requirement.
“I can take no responsibility for what’s on that survey,” Thomas said. “It’s not generated by the school system.”
Frannie, Frannie, Frannie. Just because you take no responsibility does not mean you are not responsible. Frannie, dear, if you were required to administer the survey to fulfill a grant requirement, then you write a nice letter back to the Government Bureau For The Destruction of Little Souls and tell them, politely of course, to give you euphemistic oral sex and shove the grant where the sun don’t shine. You know, for the kids.
ht to Nancy for the story.
June 16, 2011 at 5:01 am
Once we remove the planks out of our own ecclesiastical eyes, then maybe we'll be more effective removing the specks out of the eyes of other instutions, like secular public schools.
June 16, 2011 at 5:08 am
….You do realize that would only work if Patrick were doing something worse than this, Anon?
June 16, 2011 at 5:41 am
The YRBS has been handed out in several states and major school districts for many years now; a sample of these surveys from 2001 to 2009 were used to create the CDC report that was released the same day Sebelius, speaking to the LGBT Youth Summit, declared that the Fed had "come out of the closet" in support for them. My post from last Thursday does a little unpacking of that report.
I will admit, though, that the YRBSs of the report were focused on high-school students. However, one of the disturbing results of the study was that students who self-identified as gay, bi and unsure were as much as four times as likely to have had sexual contact before the age of 13 than students who identified as straight, with response rates as high as 28.5% for gays and lesbians.
No, I'm not shocked, nor (alas) am I really offended. Our kids are being exposed to sex and sexual acts at younger ages, and we can't find out the depth of the problem if we go all squeamish and delicate; nor am I certain the kids would give honest answers if parental consent were required. At the same time, I am certain the Obama HHS has a different agenda in asking the questions, and that the YRBSs will continue to carry certain unexamined assumptions. Again, though, see my post on that.
June 16, 2011 at 12:28 pm
But did you vote in your last school board election?
June 16, 2011 at 1:11 pm
People have every right to say that this is hideous, and, it has nothing to do with planks.
June 16, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Who gave out the grants? Alfred Kinsey?
June 16, 2011 at 3:04 pm
I think @Anon1201 was suggesting the pedophilia crisis. While that is indeed a tragedy, statistics have shown that there has been ten times more pedophilia in public schools. Furthermore, have you ever seen this question in any Catholic school survey? Who has the plank now?
June 16, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Rick's spot on. Anon is either ignorant or bigoted. Ignorant that the sexual abuse problem is more widespread and problematic in the culture-at-large vs. the Catholic Church than it ever was even at the height of the Church's scandal. Or bigoted because s/he doesn't care as long as s/he can hide behind the media hysteria and point the finger… the Church makes such an appealing target.
Being as I have children, it disgusts me. Finger-pointing isn't going to create a safe environment. The necessary soul-searching so far has only been done by the Church (and she won't be getting any credit). That way, the pop culture doesn't have to worry itself too much about changing its ways. ~kim
June 16, 2011 at 8:19 pm
The idea that children and adolescents go on to lead lives of "sexual health" as a result of all of this brainwashing in the schools is total nonsense. As a matter of fact the science now shows precisely the opposite. It has gone way beyond providing basic health information and is now an imposition on the health of young people.
June 16, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Last year, a speaker in a conference of medical professionals shared how he went to the restroom in a US public high school and found 3 groups of students huddled around different couples doing oral sex. So, the youth are probably used to it and the question is not that scandalous.
Also, I went to a Catholic high school and everyone was checked by a doctor for venereal disease. It was not done through a survey.
June 16, 2011 at 9:06 pm
High school, not middle school, and that sounds rather… unlikely. Kind of like the "rainbow parties" even the NYTimes pointed out were probably urban legends and definitely hugely exaggerated.
Having been personally accused of sexual activity (by a supposed adult) with about a dozen guys on the basis of eating lunch with the same group almost every day, I know how desperate some folks are to believe that "everyone" is doing this or that sexual thing.
June 16, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Home school. Quit giving your kids over to other people to educate. Then, unless you are a reprobate or a moron, you'll be without complaint.
June 16, 2011 at 10:25 pm
You know its got to be bad when the civil liberties union is teaming WITH the parents instead of the normal other way around.
This is disgusting and vile. I thought kids went to school to be educated? I'm pretty sure they're gonna know what to do on their wedding night, even if the public school doesn't give a demonstration…What happened to math, science, and history? Oh yeah, they're all going down the toilet.
June 17, 2011 at 4:11 am
For Anon #1– this is a blog with a section for "women with troubles"– most of the examples are female teachers molesting their students. Someone made the mistake of angrily telling the blogger that only men do that sort of thing, if I remember correctly.
Might think on that before you try to slyly drag the bad priests out to deflect every possible objection from child abuse by other groups.