The State-Wide Education Committee has developed three action items. Each will be explained in separate emails.
First, the Committee recommends that we notify parents immediately about the Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey High School Questionnaire and encourage parents to opt-out their children from that survey. The suggested process and opt-out letter are provided after a brief description of the survey.
The CDC has a copy of the survey used by most schools in Wisconsin and it includes a page that will get you copies of surveys available for other grade levels: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/pdf/questionnaire/2013_hs_questionnaire.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/yrbs/questionnaire_rationale.htm
Some questions from the survey include but are not limited to:
1. During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a gun?
2. During your life, with whom have you had sexual contact: I have never had contact, females, males, females and males.
3. During the past 3 months, with how many people did you have sexual intercourse? The choices given to students include none to 6 or more people.
THE WORDING OF THESE QUESTIONS IMPLIES THAT CHILDREN ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN THESE OBJECTIONABLE BEHAVIORS. CHILDREN ARE LED TO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE NOT “WITH IT” IF THEY HAVE NOT TRIED THESE BEHAVIORS. CESA 6 has removed its copy of this survey from its website.
THE WISCONSIN YOUTH RISK BEHAVIOR SURVEY GOES BY DIFFERENT NAMES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: CESA 6 SURVEY, CESA 7 SURVEY, THE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL SURVEY, ETC. The survey is also given at the middle school level. Some districts use the same survey for both grades and other districts modify the survey a bit for the middle school aged students. ASK YOUR SCHOOL TO PROVIDE THE NAME OF THE SURVEY (S) THAT THE DISTRICT IS USING AND ASK FOR A COPY OF THE SURVEY THEY USE.
PROCESS for protecting your child against this invasion of privacy:
1. Contact your local district and ask to participate in a meeting of their Young Republican group
2. Ask members of the Young Republican group for their and their parent’s contact information
3. Invite the students and parents to a “social” event sponsored by your political group. During the event, share a copy of the survey with the parents. Introduce concerns about increased data collection efforts of the federal government. Inform parents that this data will follow their child for life. Encourage parents to opt-out of the survey and to become active members of your political group. Distribute a flier to parents about an upcoming Common Core presentation sponsored by your group and encourage parents to participate.