Loudoun school parents 'livid' after students as young as 12 answer sex life survey
Some parents have been left outraged and furious after they found that Virginia school officials failed to inform them about a sex life survey that students as young as 12 years old had to take. The Virginia Youth Survey was curated by the Virginia Department of Health (VDOH) and it also agreed with the parents. The VDOH said that the school division should have sent written notification to the students’ elders 30 days before carrying out the survey. It also stated that the parents have full right to review the survey as well as deny participation.
Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville failed to do so and went ahead with the survey without parents’ consent, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) told Fox News. Loudon County has been in the news often of late, it started when allegations of sexual assault hit in schools came to the fore. A Virginia couple sounded the alarm that their daughter was raped by a skirt-wearing boy in a school bathroom in May. The case drew national attention because the girl's parents — Scott and Jessica Smith – had accused the district of covering up the crime. And because the sexual assault took place in a gender-fluid bathroom by a male student wearing a skirt, the parents had expressed fear of more such cases if schools start allowing boys into girls' bathrooms. And now this youth survey is certainly making matters worse.
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The survey was handed out to around 180 students and out of which at least 90 completed it. The questions that were asked in it were
“Are you transgender?”
“Have you been tested for a sexually transmitted disease?”
“Have you ever had sexual intercourse?” and
“[W]ith how many people have you had sexual intercourse?”
The instructions with the survey asked students to remain anonymous while replying and they were also given the freedom to skip questions that they did not want to answer. As per the VDOH, the survey is “part of a statewide surveillance system that monitors health risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults. The survey is conducted every other year during the fall in randomly selected high schools and middle schools.”
“The Virginia Youth Survey measures behaviors in the following areas: • Behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence • Alcohol and other drug use • Tobacco use • Unhealthy dietary behaviors • Inadequate physical activity,” it added. One Loudoun County mother, who chose not to reveal her identity, said that the survey questions left her “livid and sickened” and that her 14-year-old daughter felt “uncomfortable” while answering them.
Meanwhile, Loudoun Valley High School’s assistant principal, Bill Gulgert, acknowledged the mistake in an email to parents and said that the survey was carried out “without families being sent an opt-out form”. He stated, “We have communicated with the Virginia Population Health Surveys Coordinator and they have removed data collected from these surveys. Again, we apologize for this error. Loudoun Valley High School respects the right of parents to be notified in such matters. I wanted to you to know that this data will not be used.”
This comes weeks after Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia were blasted for giving a survey to kids as young as 10 that includes questions, like “My parent has had their body hurt from actions (such as punching, kicking, choking, shoving, and pulling of hair) by a spouse/partner,” “How many times in the past year have you: … said something bad about someone’s race or culture?” and “Have you ever had a partner in a dating or serious relationship who: …pressured you into having sex (going all the way) when you didn’t want to?”
The list of questions also asked students if they “sniffed glue, breathed (huffed) the contents of an aerosol spray can, or inhaled other gases or sprays in order to get high in the past 30 days?” or have they “taken a prescription drug other than painkillers such as Ritalin, Adderall, or Xanax without a doctor's order in the past 30 days?”