A Utah high school teacher was placed on administrative leave recently after asking students if they ever had an abortion and other personal questions.
Several parents complained to Roy High School leaders in Roy, Utah last week after their students brought home a questionnaire assignment that asked some very personal information, KUTV News reports.
The questionnaire, taken from a 1981 advice column by Ann Landers, asked students about their medical, sexual and criminal history, sometimes in archaic terms.
“Have you [your girl] ever had an abortion?” one question asked. A second question asked about multiple abortions. Others asked about slipping drugs into someone’s drink, “parking,” drug and alcohol use, sexual activity, contraception and sexual orientation.
The questionnaire then scored the students with labels such as “nerd,” “pure as Ivory soap and maybe a fruitcake” and “hopeless and condemned.”
The questions were an assignment for the 11th-grade class “Adult Roles and Financial Literacy,” the report states.
High school and school district leaders apologized Monday, saying the questionnaire was inappropriate, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
“[We] want to extend our sincere apology to the students who were asked to complete this questionnaire, as well as their parents and we assure you this survey will not be used in the future,” they said in a statement.
Heather Danks Miller, who has a 16-year-old daughter in the class, said she was shocked when she saw the bizarre questionnaire.
“I couldn’t believe something like this was handed out to students,” she said. “I told my daughter not to turn it in.”
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Here’s more from the report:
“When she read me the questions and the rating system,” Danks Miller said, “I just got mad and called the school.”
Danks Miller said she met with the teacher and the principal, and the teacher told her that she’d used the survey for years without any problems or complaints.
The statement from the Weber School District said officials were unaware of the questionnaire, though it was hosted on a district web portal prior to Monday afternoon, and are looking into the matter.
“While the course itself contains instruction in human sexuality to which parents consented, the survey that was distributed to students elicited information about sexually explicit activities and delinquent behavior, and parental consent was not obtained for this particular set of questions, as is required by state and federal law,” it said.
No matter what one’s beliefs about abortion, it is a sensitive, personal and often traumatic matter, especially for a teenager who has aborted an unborn child. Often, pregnant teens feel pressured or forced to abort their unborn babies by a partner or parent. Abortion is a hugely sensitive and weighty matter unlike any other because it involves an unborn baby’s life, a girl’s well-being and relationships.
