Parents Win Victory Over Nosy Surveys

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Perhaps there is hope for us non-vaccinators!

>Subject: Parents Win Victory Over Nosy Surveys

>

> Parents Win Victory Over Nosy Surveys

>

>June 16, 1999 by: Phyllis Schlafly

>

>Parents have just won a tremendous legal victory over the widespread

>public school practice of forcing students to answer nosy,

>privacy-invading questions about themselves and their families. The

>U.S. District Court in San , Texas, has signed the final order

>of judgment in a class action case against the San

>Independent School District (SAISD) brought by parents, who were

>represented by the Texas Justice Foundation.

>

>The wide-reaching order is of landmark and nationwide importance.

>For many years, parents have objected to the way that schools force

>students to respond to nonacademic questionnaires intruding on

>pupil and family privacy and involving matters that are none of the

>school's business.

>

>Parents also object to the way that the so-called therapeutic

>classroom is crowding out academics and basic skills.

>Schoolchildren are routinely subjected, not only to intrusive,

>depressing surveys, but also to psychological and attitudinal exams

>and guidance counseling, usually without parental knowledge or

>consent.

>

>The case called T. v. SAISD began when 10-year-old 's

>mother voiced her objections to the Hillcrest Elementary School

>about sex education, death and suicide education, and the lack of

>academic instruction. T.'s daughter tested three years below

>grade level and her son tested four years below grade level as a

>result of being taught about UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, how to

>embalm, etc., instead of spelling and math.

>

>Complaints to the superintendent and the school board got T.

>nothing but harassment of , who was subjected to

>interrogations about " what her mother was up to. " The SAISD then

>administered intrusive, psychological surveys to students at Jefferson

>High School, delving into the feelings and emotions and invading their

>personal privacy and family relationships.

>

>Teachers assured students that their survey responses would remain

>confidential even from parents. Concurrently, the school conducted

>daily classes that gave comprehensive group guidance counseling,

>without parental preview or consent, and without respecting the

>conscience or convictions of the parents or students.

>

>Here are samples from the nosy questionnaires. " What do you

>consider to be the best thing about your home and the worst? How

>do you get along at home? If you could change one thing about your

>family, what would it be and why? "

>

>More depressing questions from the SAISD's surveys included:

> " What's the thing you need most that you are not getting from your

>family? Has anybody close to you died in the last year or so? Do you

>ever wish you were a boy or a girl instead of what you are? What

>things do you worry about? "

>

>Another question reveals the dramatic curriculum changes that have

>taken place in the public schools: " Select the group counseling

>sessions you would like to participate in: Managing Anger;

>Parent/Teen Conflict; Coping with Stress; Interpersonal Relationship;

>Grief/Loss; Study Skills; Other. "

>

>The court's order in the T. case requires the school district

>henceforth to obtain parental consent for all guidance counseling,

>psychological exams, and intrusive surveys. The consent forms must

>notify parents if the surveys include controversial topics such as

>political affiliations, sexual behavior and attitudes, or requests for

>privileged information, including potentially embarrassing mental and

>psychological problems.

>

>SAISD shredded all its objectionable intrusive surveys in the

>presence of parent representatives. Parents were notified that they

>could review their own children's questionnaires prior to the

>shredding.

>

>SAISD will establish a new district-wide committee of parents and

>school staff to review possibly-intrusive surveys prior to submitting

>them for approval or rejection by the school board and before asking

>for parental consent. The district will give employees in-service

>training on state and federal parental rights and instruct them that

>they may not retaliate, intimidate, interrogate, or harass students or

>parents who are exercising their rights.

>

>This Texas case is the latest chapter in a long-running battle against

>nosy surveys about sex, drugs, death, attitudes, and family matters,

>and against psychological tests and courses, that first received

>national attention with the passage of the Protection of Pupil Rights

>Amendment (PPRA) by Congress in 1978. The public school

>establishment, led by the National Education Association, had a

>collective tantrum when the Reagan Administration issued

>regulations in 1984.

>

>Seven days of hearings held by the Department of Education in 1984

>put hundreds of cases of psychological abuse in the classroom on

>the record, but the public school establishment continued to bitterly

>oppose enforcement of PPRA.

>

>Despite a strengthening of the law's language by Senator Chuck

>Grassley's amendment in 1994, despite pledges of enforcement in

>the Contract With America, and despite notorious violations such as

>the 149-question federally-financed survey given to Minnesota

>children in 1989, PPRA has never been enforced until now. This

>issue is more important in 1999 than ever before because technology

>now allows the data collected on nosy surveys to be entered in

>student computer portfolios that can be used against the student all

>his life.

>

>The T. case marks a real turning point in the battle for parents'

>rights. It provides a model for what parents and their lawyers can

>accomplish elsewhere.

>

> Phyllis Schlafly column 6-16-99

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>This column may also be found at:

>http://www.eagleforum.org/column/1999/june99/99-06-16.html

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>

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