Moms for Liberty - Duval Asserts that Sex Survey Violates Students' Right to Privacy
A local group of concerned parents and parental rights advocates, Moms for Liberty - Duval, is asking the Duval County School Board to remove personal questions about sex from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey, which the School District intends to administer to students as young as 10 in February and March, asks them about their sexual behavior, sexual orientation, sexual history, masculinity and femininity, and gender identity.
The questions which the group wants the School Board to strike from the survey include:
“During the past 12 months, how many times did anyone force you to do sexual things that you did not want to do?”
“Have you ever been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when you did not want to?”
“How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time.”
Children are also asked about how many people they have had sexual intercourse with, whether they have had oral sex, and whether they have sex with females or males.
They are asked if they are transgender, heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning.
“These questions are unacceptable. They not only violate parental rights and the students’ rights to privacy, they could trigger post-traumatic stress in a student who is suicidal or has been sexually assaulted. Imagine if you were an adolescent taking this survey” said Becky Nathanson, Chapter Chair of Moms for Liberty – Duval. “Those asking for this information have no concern for the individuals providing the answers. Guidance Counseling is not alerted to support them. It’s shocking and unacceptable that our schools put our children in such a position while they are at school.”
Specifically, the group is asking the School Board to:
- Circulate to the survey to the parents BEFORE it is administered to the students.
- Require parents to OPT IN to having their children take the survey, and
- Eliminate all questions which were not specifically propounded by the CDC or which ask about sexual orientation, sexual activity, or gender identity.
“Moms for Liberty -Duval is working hard to raise awareness of this violation of our students’ privacy and innocence,” Nathanson added. “Duval County Schools are violating the intent and spirit of the Federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). It mandates that parents provide affirmative consent (opt in), rather than assumed permission with option to opt out. We are urging our local school district to comply with the spirit of the PPRA, which recognizes that questions of such a personal nature should never be asked of minors without their parents' full knowledge and consent. Many of us find these questions to be completely inappropriate, and only serve to advance an ideology while showing complete disregard for parents and their vulnerable children,” Nathanson said.