This article addresses the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A school district in Massachusetts plans to issue a confidential survey to middle school students, advising parents against sharing the questionnaire with others.
At Thomas Blake Middle School, which is under the jurisdiction of Medfield Public Schools, students will be given a survey addressing topics such as gender identity, mental health, suicidal thoughts, climate change anxiety, and parental behavior. This information was revealed through documents acquired by Defending Education in October.
The survey in question, the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, is not a creation of the Medfield Public Schools. It is reportedly administered to 40,000 students from Grades 6-12 across 25 school districts situated to the west of Boston and contains probing questions.
An undated image of Thomas Blake Middle School in Medfield, Massachusetts. (Medfield Public Schools)
Comprising 112 questions, the survey is designed to collect crucial data regarding the health and risk behaviors of students in middle and high school. The insights gathered are intended to support data-driven initiatives aimed at ensuring student well-being and safety. The survey assures respondents of their anonymity.
“The data is used to help the 25 school districts with programming, staffing needs, grants, and support for kids,” Jeff Marsden, Medfield Public Schools superintendent, told Fox News Digital.
In a letter to parents, school principal Nat Vaughn told parents they could opt out of the survey on behalf of their children and not to share the survey with anyone else, claiming that prior discussion could influence student responses.
The fourth and fifth questions, respectively, ask students what sex they were assigned at birth and what their gender identity is.
Gender identity responses include “non-binary or other (including gender-queer, gender-fluid, gender non-conforming),” “I am not sure about my gender identity” and “I do not know what this question is asking.”
The sixth question asks whether the student is transgender. The following question asks students whether they are heterosexual, gay or lesbian, bisexual, questioning their sexual identity or whether they identify in some other way.
Thomas Blake Middle School sign in Medfield, Massachusetts. (Google Maps)
A large part of the survey focuses on mental health, asking the children how often they feel stressed and anxious, how often they feel worried beyond their control, whether they feel hopeless or depressed and whether they feel like failures or that they have let themselves or their families down.
Suicidality is also a prominent section in the survey.
Children are asked whether they have felt sad or hopeless in the past 12 months for two weeks or more, whether they’ve “seriously” thought about killing themselves, whether they’ve made plans or tried to kill themselves and whether they have ever lived with someone who was “depressed, mentally ill, or suicidal.”
There are three questions about climate change on the survey.
“How often do you feel worried or stressed about climate change?” is the first, followed by “Do you think you are personally being affected by climate change?” and “Have you ever taken any actions to reduce the effects of climate change.”
Intersex-inclusive Pride progress flag alongside a transgender Pride flag. (Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Further questions include parental behavior at home, including whether parents or adults at home have ever insulted the survey subject, whether they have been physically abused by an adult at home or whether adults in their home physically abuse each other.
Defending Education is a grassroots organization “working to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas,” according to its website.
“The bad news is that these surveys are extremely common in schools and continue to get more invasive, ideological and developmentally inappropriate — there is no justification for a regional health foundation using schools as the vehicle to ask all middle schoolers about their gender identity, suicidal thoughts or feelings about climate change,” Erika Sanzi, the group’s senior director of communications, told Fox News Digital.
A large group of parents protested in Rockville, Maryland, on June 27, 2003, in an effort to opt out of books that feature LGBTQ characters in Montgomery County schools. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“The good news is that the principal notified parents, with sufficient notice, about their right to opt out and even provided a copy of the survey. Federal law requires that parents be notified and provided a mechanism to opt out but it’s extremely rare to see a copy of the survey provided to all parents without them having to ask to see it,” she said. “Perhaps this is a hopeful sign that some school districts are becoming more transparent about the controversial and sensitive content included in these surveys.”
In April, Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts issued a similarly invasive survey, sparking outrage among parents.
Medfield Public Schools did not return a request for comment.
