April 8, 2000:  The Gazette reports that about 750 S-G students will take the Communities That Care survey next week.  (Click here for the article.)  I find it amazing that when notice was given to all parents with students in grades 7-12, only a couple objected to the CDC survey, which asked some very intrusive questions about sex.  Now that all the sex questions have been removed and only half the parents have been notified--notification being limited to the size of the sample group--8 times as many students are opting out of the survey altogether.

February 16, 2000:  Today I attended a meeting of Scotia-Glenville's Health Advisory Council.  It turns out that S-G did in fact file a grant stating it would do a survey and spend the grant money in accordance with survey results. The school received $16,000. The money has been in limbo because no survey has been done.  The survey is now scheduled for March.

 Another interesting tidbit . . . Pat Tammer, a co-chair of the Health Advisory Council, said the new survey, Communities That Care, was THE FIRST CHOICE of the Youth Issues Consortium, despite Mr. Joe Benny's School-Board-meeting comments that postponing the CDC Survey would result in an inferior survey taking its place.  The Communities That Care Survey was initially rejected as being prohibitively expensive.  The cost problem has been solved, so it appears that postponing the CDC survey has resulted in a superior survey.

While the new survey, itself, still raises concerns, what really bothers me is that educators, many of whom have no counseling or treatment experience, will have $16,000 with which to impose their interpretation of the survey results on the rest of the community. As many know, surveys may give a snapshot of conditions and attitudes, but the results of these kinds of surveys never tell you what SHOULD be done. As an example, a survey of NYC residents at the turn of the 1900s would have shown flies to be a big problem. People went about building fly killing devices and concocting chemical substances to solve the problem.  The fly problem was solved by none of these "solutions."  It was solved by the use of automobiles.  When cars replaced horses, horse dung disappeared, and so did the flies.  No one suggested using cars to get rid of flies.

December 2, 1999:  Raleigh, NC schools are asking 6th graders sexually explicit survey questions.  The proponents of the survey defend their actions in this article.  After reading the article you'll wonder how communities ever addressed issues like teen sex, and alcohol and drug usage, before we had surveys.  My guess is--and this is just a guess--they taught their children basic values.  We don't need surveys to tell us whether we need to do that, do we?  But that's not what's going on here.  The message is values are not enough--or maybe values need reinforcing.  Sometimes the message is the values of the parents are wrong and ours are right (e.g. smoking).  And maybe the message is professional opinions trump family values.  The bottom line is the marginalization of parents and a psychologically controlled state in exchange for whatever good results.  Anyone care to predict the consequences thirty years into the future?

December 1, 1999:  The Gazette reports that the school survey has been postponed until March or April, and that the new survey will not ask questions about sexual behaviors.  The new survey comes from Communities That Care.  You can read the developer's comments about the survey and request a sample copy online.

November 17, 1999:  Middletown, OH parents struggle with survey proposed for their school.  You can read the article.

November 12, 1999:  Gazette editorial by Deborah Pearce supporting the use of surveys and chastising The Gazette for reporting scant instances of disagreements with the survey as "news."

November 10, 1999:  Gazette report on the Board's 11/8/99 survey discussion.

November 9, 1999:  Gazette editorial by Bill Doran supporting the use of surveys to detect misbehavior and monitor treatment effectiveness.

November 9, 1999:  My report from the S-G Board meeting where doubts are raised about whether students may opt out of taking any survey.

November 3, 1999:  My report from the Burnt Hills/Ballston Lake School Board Meeting.

October 29, 1999:  See a School Board Policy from Hobart, IN, which would specify the procedure to follow when administering surveys asking for sensitive information.

October 28, 1999:  The Gazette reports Burnt Hills has postponed the administration of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  Its School Board will discuss the issue on Tuesday night.

October 27, 1999:  One Gazette article and a Gazette Opinion supporting parents who would rather use a different survey for planning community youth activities.  I agree with the Gazette.

October 26, 1999:  The Board of Education asked Superintendent Marcelle to postpone the Youth Risk Behavior Survey scheduled for grades 7-12 on Wednesday, October 27, so it may more formally and thoroughly evaluate the concerns raised by 8 families.  Thanks go to the Board, and to the parents who reviewed the survey.  (I note that today's Gazette article was printed before the Board of Education addressed the issue.)  The Board will address survey issue at its next meeting on Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., in the District Office.

October 23, 1999:  During the week of October 25th, the school intends to administer the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey to students in grades 7-12.  I strongly urge you to view this survey online.  Many of its questions are deeply personal.  Considering the survey will be given in public classrooms and not in privacy, the survey will very likely cause embarrassment, and elicit some demeaning and hurtful speech.  Even just the perceived possibility of this by the students is enough to seriously undermine the reliability of the survey, making its results pretty meaningless.

Some of the questions are R-rated.  If in movie form, the school would need written parental permission before exposing this to minors.  Since the survey was developed for medical and health monitoring purposes, and not for community programming, its use by the Youth Issues Consortium of Glenville and Burnt Hills is highly questionable.  (This in no way is intended to disparage or detract from the immense value of the Consortium's work.)

For more information you may call Patricia Tammer.  If you object to the use or the method of administration of the survey, or you think the school should first obtain parental consent before administering the survey to any student under age 18, I invite you to call Superintendent Marcelle, and to address the Board of Education at its meeting on Monday, October 25, at 7:30pm in the High School (probably in the Library).

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November 9, 1999:  The S-G Board addressed the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.  The Youth Issues Consortium is currently looking at several surveys to find one that will meet its desires and protect common sensibilities.  Joe Benny, who is the Board's representative to the Consortium, but who hasn't been able to attend one of its meetings since July, strongly objected to the postponement and apparent withdrawal of the CDC survey.  He stated his belief that all students should be required to take the survey with no opt-in or opt-out provision for parents or students, though he does believe students may decline to answer questions--offensive or otherwise, I presume--after they have read them.

Superintendent Marcelle stressed that both school districts have to give the same survey with the same rules applying in each district.  Marcelle suggested the following questions be reviewed with the Consortium:  (1) Does a student have the right to opt out of the survey?  (2) Does a parent have the right to opt a student out of the survey?  (3) Does a child have the right not to answer a survey question?

The mere fact that some feel the answers to these questions are debatable, or in doubt, is a grave commentary on our society.  The day the government, or a school, can compel a student to disclose private information about sexual beliefs, attitudes, and practices, and family beliefs, attitudes, and practices, and other private, embarrassing, or unlawful conduct, is the day we add the signatures of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud to the United States Constitution.  There are other, more effective ways to get the kind of information the Consortium wants without asking intrusive questions at school.  Indeed, if a student asked another student how many times she or he had sexual intercourse during the last three months, it would constitute sexual harassment.  Asking the question on a survey does not make it less so.

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Editorial on sex survey an exercise in hysteria on se:

Your [Gazette] Oct. 27 editorial regarding the Scotia-Glenville and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school districts' plans to survey students regarding drug use, sexual behavior and violence suggested that such an undertaking is "unhelpful" and potentially harmful. I would suggest that what may be harmful is your editorial response, which is an hysterical, knee jerk reaction to an effort to confront the serious problems of our youth in a systematic and logical way.

Efforts to prevent alcohol/drug problems among our youth are currently undergoing a significant shift in approach based upon an expanding body of research-based knowledge about "what works." No longer is it acceptable to implement programs based on what feels right or what we believe might work. We are shifting toward an accountability-based approach which requires that prevention programs demonstrate they are having a measurable impact on the problems we are confronting.

This requires those responsible for designing and implementing programs to approach these tasks with hard data in hand about the prevalence of specific problems, rather than a general understanding that "drug and alcohol use, sexual activity, and violence are problems . . . in our schools." This data is also essential because assessing a program's success will require a follow-up survey in the future in order to measure changes in the targeted behaviors.

A survey, if it is attempting to gather accurate information, must ask questions in a non-judgmental and value-neutral way. To do otherwise would discourage honest responses. Your suggestion that a survey asking questions about drug use and sex will result in an increase in those behaviors is without any scientific support, to the best of my knowledge. Your suggestion that a pencil and paper questionnaire would glamorize such behaviors is illogical. We can certainly find countless examples in television, movies, etc. which do glamorize sex drugs and violence, and to which, unfortunately, the average sixth- or seventh-grader has likely had thousands of exposures.

Although your editorial fails to mention it, parents are given the option of excluding their child from participation in the survey. In addition, a child would be given the choice to skip any question. All survey responses will, of course, be handled in an anonymous fashion. Should we characterize these conditions as constituting a "crass interrogation"?

The Sunday Gazette for Oct. 31 contained an excellent article in the Opinion section discussing the development of research-based prevention programming. Without surveys such as the one proposed locally, there would be no data on which to develop a body of knowledge of what truly works. While I am not a resident of the communities in question. I am a part of a newly forming coalition in Fulton County that will be engaged in a similar process of surveying students as a part of a needs-assessment process. I can only hope that the members of our community, including schools, par-. parents and the media, will approach this issue with more reason than was displayed by your editorial.

BILL DORAN
Gloversville

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S-G rejects `pouring rights' contract 
Exclusive arrangement causes concern

By SHIRIN PARSAVAND
Gazette Reporter


GLENVILLE [November 10, 1999]- Not wanting to give one company the sole right to put beverage vending machines in schools, Scotia-Glenville school officials have decided not to enter into an exclusive contract with a soda company.

* * * *

Behavior survey

In other business, the board discussed a survey on risky behavior, which the Scotia-Glenville and Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school districts had planned to give to their middle school and high school students.  The districts postponed giving the survey after parents raised objections.

Now, officials in both districts are looking into whether to give the survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or another survey. The CDC survey asks students detailed questions about drug use, sexual behavior and suicide.

"We have to give the same survey, so the data will be comparable," Carpenter said.

The issue of which survey to use will now go back to the Glenville Youth Issues Consortium, which wanted to survey students to come up with plans to address their needs.

The consortium includes representatives from the two school districts, the town of Glenville, the village of Scotia and various community agencies.

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Much ado over School sex, drug survey

As I pondered, for a day, writing a letter regarding [The Gazette's] Oct. 26 article about a Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake student survey and parent concerns over it, along came your own editorial concerning the survey on the following day. Both newspaper items have left me disappointed.

The article reporting parent concerns over the survey did not convince me that parents in any large way don't want our children receiving this survey. You reported only small numbers of instances of concern: In one place, the article referred to "one I of course, anonymous! parent," or in another, "three to five parents". Aren't there always a few who complain about anything going on anywhere? Parents were notified by mail and given the right to refuse to have their son/ daughter take the survey.

Parental concerns, whether for the child's right to privacy or for the content of the survey, should have been no issue when the option to decline participation was given. And it was— we received letters from both the schools which involved my children. [Please see, "What the Superintendent Said."]  But you reported these scant instances of disagreement as "news." This inappropriate attention to a seemingly very few serves to publicize and inflate a parental lack of support in these two school districts which I, for one, hope not to be true.

From my own perspective, I am pleased with the BH-BL district when they take any proactive measure to assess and act on the inappropriate behaviors prevalent in our schools today. Parents who wish to "shelter" their children from these questions are naive to think they can do so, and that their children are unaware of these issues. These are the issues which should be openly discussed and understood in the home, so children do not act out in the areas of drug abuse, sexual activity, gun use, etc. Children in middle school and high school should not be hearing of these issues for the first time in a school survey.

In addition, your subsequent editorial which called the survey intrusive and unhelpful (How could you judge that now, before results and how they will be used are known?), continues along the same lines. It proposes that the best means for avoiding these problems is to not talk about them, not to question students about them, suggesting that doing so may "normalize" the behavior, that just seeing it in print will put ideas into the heads of otherwise well-behaved children.

Consider this: Should we not then remove from applications for jobs drivers' licenses, etc. those questions such as "Have you ever been arrested for possession of drugs? Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" Does reading and answering them put ideas in our head to go do them?

My congratulations to the BH-BL and Scotia-Glenville districts for their efforts!

DEBORAH PEARCE
Glenville

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Behavior survey for area students still controversial

GLENVILLE [12/1/1999 The Daily Gazette, by Shirin Parsavand, Gazette Reporter] -- Students in two area school districts likely will face questions on drugs and violence, but not sex, when they take a survey this spring about risky behavior.

Questions about sex caused most of a recent controversy here over a survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Scotia-Glenville schools had planned to give the survey to middle school and high school students last month. but held off after several parents objected.

The group coordinating the survey, the Glenville Area Youth Issues Consortium, decided Tuesday to recommend the schools use a different survey instead of the one developed by the CDC.

Like the CDC survey, the Communities That Care Youth Survey includes questions about whether children are doing things that could harm themselves or other people.

But the Communities That Care survey also is designed to find about the positive side of students' lives. It asks, for instance, about whether students have supportive relationships with adults.

The Glenville Youth Issues Consortium had considered the Communities That Care survey months ago, before it chose the CDC survey. Members favored the Communities That Care survey over the CDC survey, but thought it would cost too much, said James MacFarland, the town of Glenville's human services director and the consortium's sole staff member.

Since then, Capital Region BOCES has agreed to cover the cost of collecting data from the survey.

Around 20 members of the consortium discussed the surveys at a meeting Tuesday in the Glenville Senior Center.

Before settling on the Communities That Care survey, some members said they shouldn't back off from the CDC survey too readily.

Only a handful of parents objected to the CDC survey, and some of them were mostly upset because they didn't get enough information ahead of time, said Jim Guiliano, assistant principal of Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.

"I don't think we should be manipulated into selecting a lukewarm instrument that makes everyone happy," Guiliano said. "I think we should select something that is meaningful and asks the difficult questions."

In the end, Guiliano said he was satisfied with the new survey choice. But consortium members said they hoped to find some way to address concerns about youths having sex at an early age, even though the survey doesn't address this issue.

Students at Scotia-Glenville High School had liked the idea of taking the CDC survey, said Becky Gaudreau, a senior at the school and a member of the consortium.

"All of them had good things to say about it. They're saying it is such a good idea to have these issues out," she said. They're the same issues students often talk about in the hallways, she said.

"I don't understand why this (survey) is such a big issue," she said.

Both the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and the Scotia-Glenville school boards will have to discuss the survey before deciding whether to give it in their schools.

Consortium members hope the survey can be given in March or April, so they'll have results by the end of the school year. The consortium plans to use the results to come up with a plan for addressing youths needs.

The consortium includes representatives from the two school districts, the Town of Glenville, the village of Scotia and various human service agencies.

Copyright The Daily Gazette.  All rights reserved.

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Schools to conduct risk survey

Scotia-Glenville, BH-BL cooperate in effort to design youth programs
By SHIRIN PARSAVAND Gazette Reporter

GLENVILLE [April 8, 2000] - Students in two area school districts will take a survey next week to show whether they are taking dangerous risks, such as using drugs or acting violently.

The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Scotia-Glenville schools will give the survey to randomly selected students in seventh through 12th grades. Each school district will survey about 750 students.

The Communities that Care Youth Survey was chosen by the Glenville Area Youth Issues Consortium, which plans to use the results to come up with a plan for addressing youths' needs.

The consortium includes representatives from both school districts, the town of Glenville, the village of Scotia and human service agencies.

While the survey includes questions about risky behavior, it's also designed to find out about the positive side of students' lives. It asks, for instance, about whether students have supportive relationships with adults.

The school districts had planned to give another survey to students last fall. But they held off after several parents objected to the survey, or said they didn't know enough about it.

The youth consortium then decided to switch to another survey. Unlike the first survey, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Communities that Care survey doesn't include questions on sex.

Consortium members said last fall they hope to find another way to address concerns about youths having sex at an early age.

Both school districts sent letters to students' homes last week, letting them know the survey is optional and that individual students' answers will be kept confidential.

Relatively few parents sent in forms saying their children wouldn't participate, district officials said. In the Scotia-Glenville school district, 17 students selected for the survey will not take part, district spokesman Bob Hanlon said.

Capital Region BOCES will cover the cost of collecting data from the survey. Survey results should be available by the end of the school year, said Nancy Jones, coordinator of BOCES' Schenectady County Prevention Partnership.

Copyright 2000 The Daily Gazette.  All rights reserved.

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School drug use survey revealing

Albany Times Union (November 2, 2000)
By BENJAMIN LESSER, Staff writer

Ballston-- Alcohol, marijuana use slightly higher among Burnt Hills students than nationwide

A recent survey of drug, alcohol and tobacco use among students in the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District has uncovered mixed results.

The survey of the 527 seventh- through 12th-graders found a greater percentage of district students have had contact with alcohol and marijuana than students in similar-size districts nationwide, while tobacco and inhalant use was lower.

The number of students who have smoked or do smoke marijuana or drink alcohol was not shocking to district officials.

"The fact that it's a little bit higher doesn't surprise me,'' said Jim Guiliano, assistant principal at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.

Guiliano said that a similar survey conducted in December 1996 found about the same number of students who have used drugs, alcohol or both.

According to the most recent report, 65 percent of students surveyed in the district have had at least some contact with alcohol in their lifetime. The average in similar districts is 63 percent.

Lifetime marijuana use in the district is 25 percent while in similar districts it is 19 percent.

In contrast, a lower percentage who participated in the survey use tobacco products or any illicit drug other than marijuana when compared with other school districts.

Only 42 percent of district students have smoked a cigarette, compared with 45 percent nationally. Even more encouraging is that only 13 percent of Burnt Hills students have used smokeless tobacco while 28 percent have used it nationally.

The Communities That Care Youth Survey, was conducted in June by Developmental Research and Programs, a firm based in Seattle.

The reasons for the relatively high level of marijuana and alcohol use are varied according to officials. Guiliano said that the relatively affluent nature of the residents in the Burnt Hills area means kids have more money to spend.

"They have an abundance of discretionary funds,'' he said.

He also said that he thinks that fewer parents are taking an active enough role in their kids' lives.

"There's a larger group of parents who are less involved, less aware of what their kids are involved in,'' Guiliano said.

The school district tries to combat the problem by having full-time social workers and psychologists on the payroll.

"Schools can do a tremendous amount and communities can do a tremendous amount, but it still comes down to the family,'' Guiliano said.

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