Loaded Questions / “Are You Still Beating Your Wife?”

“Are You Still Beating Your Wife?” What a loaded question!
Many of the questions on the Washington Healthy Youth Survey and the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey are loaded as well. The surveys do give students the choice of answering “none,” but only after being asked in such a way that assumes the student is already engaged in the behavior in question.

During the past 30 days, on how many days did you use marijuana or hashish (grass, hash, pot)?
Have you ever seriously thought about killing yourself?
How old were you the first time you smoked a whole cigarette?

When did it become okay for the public schools* to ask students these kinds of questions without written parent consent? When did it become okay for the schools to ask students these kinds of questions at all, with or without parental consent?

*The public schools may only be the vehicle used to reach a vulnerable population. The school may be administering surveys for other agencies. Do just any agencies have access to students via our public schools? Who determines which ones and why? Who draws the line and where are they drawing it? In whose best interest is the line being drawn? Is it in your child’s best interest or the agency collecting the data?

What exception is granted to the HYS and YRBS that allows them to be administered to students in our schools without parent knowledge and consent?

Check and see if your school district is registered to administer the Washington Healthy Youth Survey. Registered Schools.