Thomas Blake Middle School principal Nat Vaughn asked parents not to discuss the sensitive topics with their children ahead of the survey.
A Massachusetts middle school is administering a survey to students asking personal questions about gender identity, sexual orientation, suicidal thoughts, and climate change — and asking that parents not discuss those topics with their children in advance.
In a letter sent to middle school parents regarding the survey, Thomas Blake Middle School principal Nat Vaughn asked parents to “not share the survey with anyone else,” citing concerns over the accuracy of student responses.
“For us to gather accurate information that truly reflects students’ perspectives and experiences, it is important that they answer the questions on their own, without prior discussion that may influence them to respond in a certain way,” the letter reads.
The letter, along with a copy of the survey, was obtained by the parental rights watchdog Defending Education and shared with National Review.
The survey ask students if they have ever considered committing suicide, what characterization best describes their gender, and what gender is on their birth certificate.
One question reads, “Some people describe themselves as transgender when their sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about their gender. Are you transgender?”
Another says, “During the past 12 months, did you injure yourself on purpose? (For example, by cutting, burning, or bruising yourself on purpose.)”
The district sent a letter to parents in October informing them that their children would be asked to take a survey, a copy of which was included with the letter. Parents were also told they had until November 5 to opt their children out of taking the survey.
The “MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey” will be administered to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders at Thomas Blake Middle School. The survey is administered biannually to 40,000 middle and high school students in 25 communities west of Boston and was first administered in 2006.
“These survey questions are obviously inappropriate for 11 and 12 year olds. To the school’s credit, they provided a copy of the survey to all parents in advance. It would be better, however, if they would just stop asking these intrusive and ideology based questions,” said Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications at Defending Education.
Beyond questions about gender ideology and suicide, the survey contains a section on climate change, describing climate change as “shifts in average weather conditions over many years. It includes things like changes in temperature and in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events like storms.”
The survey then asks students, as young as sixth grade, about their stress level around climate change, and what actions they have taken “to help reduce the effects of climate change.”
The survey is funded by the MetroWest Health Foundation and is implemented in schools via the Education Development Center, a nonprofit bankrolled by the foundation, according to a fact sheet dispersed to parents. The survey is anonymous, and no personal identifying information is collected. The high school version of the survey, according to the fact sheet, also includes questions on sexual activities and behaviors.
Medfield Public Schools did not respond to National Review‘s request for comment.
editor’s Note: This article has been updated to note that the survey is widely administered.