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Bedford, NH- The Bedford, NH School Board was met with frustrated parents over a provocative survey that was given to middle schoolers at the Ross A. Lurgio Middle School. Several parents found the survey contained inappropriate questions that delved deeply into the personal lives of their children, some as young as 11 years old.
The survey came from Search Institute, titled “Profiles of Student Life, Attitudes and Behavior”, and was given to seventh and eighth graders to fill out. Out of 160 questions, there were many in-depth inquiries pertaining to sexual activity and preference, suicide, drug use, and physical abuse. Parents are upset by the way the school chose to handle notifying parents of this survey.
Richard Girard of Girard At Large, a Manchester, NH radio program, was able to obtain the notification that was mailed out by the school and is available to view here. The letter to parents completely neglected to mention the questions about sexual activity and other controversial topics. Girard was also able to receive a copy of the survey itself, available here.
While they were able to opt their children out of taking the questionnaire, parents are outraged by the convoluted methods that the school district used to avoid disclosing the full contents of the survey. Parents were not allowed to take the survey home for review and had to file several right-to-know requests to get a hard copy.
Ann Marie Banfield, a resident of Bedford, told BenSwann.com that she was told by the school’s superintendent that the survey’s purpose is to ensure that they are following the school’s mission statement. Banfield is concerned about the way the matter was brought forth and handled. “If we can’t trust the school to properly administer a survey to students, how can we trust them to administer programs using this information?” Banfield said.
The school said it has been using this survey every four years for the last 16 years.
