Schools across America don't need Common Core or its invasive testing component to dig deep into a student's personal and family life.
Public-school systems have been awash in a culture of privacy-destroying data mining for years, say experts on student privacy.
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The recent bombshell reported by MassResistance.org showed that students as young as 13 or 14 are being given surveys asking their sexual orientation, how often they have sex, whether it is anal, oral or vaginal sex, how often they carry guns or other weapons, and the list goes on.
"This is obscene," said Boston radio talker Jeff Kuhner, host of "The Kuhner Report," which did an hour-long show on the survey earlier this month.
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Kuhner was talking about the popular "Youth Risk Behavior Survey," which is given to children in Massachusetts schools, grades 7-12, as well as schools across the country.
The main reason the surveys are given is to create misleading "statistics" that are used by radical groups from Planned Parenthood to LGBT groups, which use the data to persuade politicians to give more taxpayer money to their organizations – and let them into schools to help solve the "huge" problems that the surveys reveal, according to Mass Resistance, which has filed a bill in the Massachusetts Legislature requiring written permission from a parent and requiring schools to show the surveys to parents before subjecting students to them.
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"It is a very emotional appeal, and millions of dollars are budgeted on the basis of these very questionable surveys," the group says on its website.
Mass Resistance says the surveys, which have been conducted in public schools since 1991 (with questions recreated every two years), are invasive, damaging to young minds and "grossly unscientific."
"Going through a battery of questions asking 'how many times' a child has engaged in certain sex acts, drug use, illegal or unhealthy activity (or attempting suicide) will likely cause the child to believe he is abnormal if he is not doing it at all – especially since the survey comes from an authority figure," says Brian Camenker of Mass Resistance.
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey asks the following questions of high school students under the category "Sexual Behavior." (The middle school version, which can be viewed here, asks if students have had sex, the number of partners, and whether they used a condom but does not ask if the sex was anal, oral or vaginal.)
=== Sexual Behavior ===
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Which of the following best describes you?
A. Heterosexual (straight)
B. Gay or lesbian
C. Bisexual
D. Not sureA transgender person is someone whose biological sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about themselves. Are you transgender?
A. No, I am not transgender
B. Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself as really a boy or man
C. Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself as really a girl or woman
D. Yes, I am transgender and I think of myself in some other way
E. I do not know if I am transgender
F. I do not know what this question is askingAdvertisement - story continues below
Have you ever had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?
A. Yes
B. NoHow old were you when you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) for the first time?
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. 11 years old or younger
C. 12 years old
D. 13 years old
E. 14 years old
F. 15 years old
G. 16 years old
H. 17 years old or olderAdvertisement - story continues below
During your life, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. 1 person
C. 2 people
D. 3 people
E. 4 people
F. 5 people
G. 6 or more peopleDuring the past 3 months, with how many people did you have sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal)?
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. I have had sexual intercourse, but not during the past 3 months
C. 1 person
D. 2 people
E. 3 people
F. 4 people
G. 5 people
H. 6 or more peopleAdvertisement - story continues below
Did you drink alcohol or use drugs before you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal) the last time?
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. Yes
C. NoThe last time you had sexual intercourse (oral, anal, vaginal), did you or your partner use a condom?
A. I have never had sexual intercourse
B. Yes
C. NoDuring your life, with whom have you had sexual contact?
A. I have never had sexual contact
B. Females
C. Males
D. Females and malesHow many times have you been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant?
A. 0 times
B. 1 time
C. 2 or more times
D. Not sureHave you ever been tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS? (Do not count tests done if you donated blood.)
A. Yes
B. No
C. Not sureHave you ever been tested for other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as genital herpes, chlamydia, syphilis, or genital warts?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Not sure
Alex Newman, co-author of the new book, "Crimes of the Educators: How Utopians are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children," said he is not surprised by the graphic nature of the questions.
"Unfortunately, after spending years researching what is going on in government schools, this kind of outrageous survey does not surprise in the slightest," Newman told WND. "As we show in our book, the sexualization of children by authorities is happening at earlier and earlier ages -- to the point where the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) now promotes global sex 'education' standards teaching 5-year-old children about masturbation."
It gets worse from there, he said.
"The tax-funded abortion giant Planned Parenthood, along with its extremist allies, are also involved in creating and promoting disgusting and wildly inappropriate 'National Sexuality Education Standards' that would horrify any reasonable parents," Newman said. "Much of this lunacy – or outright criminality – is based on the repulsive quackery of Alfred Kinsey, who, after paying pedophiles to rape children, outlandishly claimed that children were 'sexual beings' from birth."
Besides the serious emotional, mental and spiritual harm caused by such surveys, the consequences for the broader society are also damaging, he said, as abortion, STDs, homosexuality and transgenderism are all presented as perfectly normal parts of everyday life.
After the "sexuality" portion of survey, the probing personal questions continue as follows.
=== Family and personal life ===
How often does your parent/guardian(s) wear a seat belt when driving or riding in a car?
A. Never
B. Rarely
C. Sometimes
D. Most of the time
E. AlwaysDo your parents text, e-mail or use any other form of social media while driving a car or other vehicle?
A. Yes
B. NoCan you talk with at least one of your parents or other adult family members about things that are
important to you?A. Yes
B. NoMy parent/guardian(s) talk to me about the dangers of alcohol and drugs?
A. Yes
B. NoIs there at least one teacher or other adult in this school that you can talk to if you have a problem?
A. Yes
B. NoDuring the past 12 months, how often did you talk with your parents or other adults in your family about sexuality or ways to prevent HIV infection, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), or pregnancy?
A. Not at all during the past 12 months
B. About once during the past 12 months
C. About once every few months
D. About once a month
E. More than once a monthHow long have you lived in the United States?
A. Less than 1 year
B. 1 to 3 years
C. 4 to 6 years
D. More than 6 years but not my whole life
E. I have always lived in the United StatesWhere do you typically sleep at night?
A. At home with my parents or guardians
B. At a friend's or relative's home with my parents or guardians
C. At a friend's or relative's home without my parents or guardians
D. In a supervised shelter with my parents or guardians
E. In a supervised shelter without my parents or guardians
F. In a hotel or motel, car, park, campground, or other public place with my parents or guardians
G. In a hotel or motel, car, park, campground, or other public place without my parents or guardians
H. Somewhere else=== Weapons ===
During the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club?
A. 0 days
B. 1 day
C. 2 or 3 days
D. 4 or 5 days
E. 6 or more daysDuring the past 30 days, on how many days did you carry a gun?
A. 0 days
B. 1 day
C. 2 or 3 days
D. 4 or 5 days
E. 6 or more days
From there, the survey asks about suicidal thoughts, whether alcohol or tobacco is used, and other activities clearly illegal for a 12 to 17 year old.
Alex Newman
"Government has no business knowing this sort of information," Newman said. "Yet, as we also show in the book, Big Brother in Washington, D.C., is compiling massive and deeply invasive dossiers on children that include this sort of private information, and much more. This is like a nightmare from George Orwell, and it must be stopped. The fact that parents are kept out of the loop only adds further insult to injury. It's time to expose and shut down these crimes being perpetrated by the government education establishment before they destroy more children. Enough is enough."
The obvious question is, are schools breaking the law by handing out such invasive "surveys," and what do they do with the information?
They say the students' answers remain anonymous and filed at the Centers for Disease Control for use in analyzing youth-risk behaviors. Even if that's true, privacy advocates say parents should be given a copy of the questions being asked before the survey is administered, allowing them to decide, after being fully informed, whether to opt their children out of the classroom while the survey is administered.
Read the entire survey and results for 1991 through 2013 online at the CDC website.
School systems are given wide discretion in how they notify parents of the survey, whether they allow parents to see the survey, and how the survey is administered in class.
If there is any way possible to tie students' names to the information, it is clearly a violation of the federal Pupil Rights Amendment, said Anita Hoge, a national expert on student assessments and data gathering.
'Fake' privacy bill coming out of Senate
But the broader question is: What business does the government have knowing this information, whether it remains anonymous or not?
"That's a good question because this is the type of stuff we're going to deal with, and it's only going to get worse (under proposed new laws)," said Hoge.
She said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has introduced a bill called the Student Privacy Protection Act that is being sold as a panacea for student protection. In reality, it will accomplish just the opposite, Hoge said.
Hoge said Vitter's bill will codify many of the invasive data-mining schemes that have been going on since President Obama used an executive order to weaken the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
"The actual Pupil Rights Amendment says no personally identifiable data can be collected, but Vitter has changed that and said they would prohibit 'funds' to administer surveys," she said. "All of these conservative groups jumped up and down over this bill, saying how wonderful it is. But you have to read every word in this bill. Everyone said it's going to stop third-party contractors from getting data because it says they can't be paid to access student data, but guess what, they access the data for free. The schools give it to them.
"Vitter is trying to codify and make legal what they are already doing illegally by executive order," Hoge said.
Newman agrees that Vitter is making a bad situation worse.
"These are fake efforts to protect students' data. The reality is, despite the rhetoric, the GOP establishment continues to fund the Obama administration's lawless and anti-constitutional violations of student privacy," he said."In our system of government, the House controls the purse strings; therefore, the strong Republican majority could easily put a stop to all of this by refusing to appropriate funding for it and even shutting down the U.S. Department of Education.
"It saddens me that, based on all of the legislation I've seen so far on these subjects, Republicans in Congress, who were elected to stop Obama, seem more interested in doing the opposite – enabling him to continue trampling our Constitution and usurping control over local schools, student data, and more. It is time for lawmakers to get serious about their oath of office and fulfilling their promises to voters about stopping the Obama administration's antics on schools, data and everything else."
Testing for attitudes, values and beliefs
School systems have been collecting this "non-academic" data since they signed President Obama's ESEA flexibility waver to the No Child Left Behind Act, Hoge said. They also received federal money to set up longitudinal databases that could be shared across states and with the U.S. Department of Education.
Teachers are being retrained in the social-emotional realm because they have to administer tests and interventions not related to academic knowledge, Hoge said.
"It's illegal. Criminal. What are they doing with the data they collect? If they collect it, what are they doing with this personal information on these young kids?" she asks. "Are they creating curriculum or what?"
Hoge fought in federal court and won a case against the Pennsylvania Department of Education in the mid-1990s for violations of student privacy. She said the program was going to be a model for the country.
"We have found in Pennsylvania – and I know there are quite a few other states involved – that they are cataloging data on their longitudinal data systems. What are they going to do next?" she said "Are they going to schedule interventions? They're asking how often did you carry a gun. Having sex under age of 16 is illegal. How many alcoholic drinks have you had? These are probably things these kids have never thought about as 12-year-olds."
800-page monster bill could soon be voted on in Senate
Hoge said the ESEA reauthorization bill being put forth by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is also extremely disconcerting from a privacy perspective. This is the bill that will replace No Child Left Behind, the federal government's voluminous, bellwether education law.
"Alexander totally changed his original bill and has come out with a brand new 800-page bill. But there's a whole section in there where the feds are collecting data in five or six diff areas, discipline, ethnicity, poverty compared to kids who aren't in poverty, special education, etcetera," she said. "So they're saying they're going to have diagnostic reports, but once you go through all those criteria that includes all the kids. They're collecting all this discipline data, which comes under conduct but also could come under mental health. If you have aggressive behavior at school, that's going to go down under discipline. The feds are collecting all this information."
To capture more students in its data net, the government has to expand its definition of what is "special education."
"So in the end, no one is normal anymore. Everyone has a disability. Your child doesn’t have to have a handicap. It could be a social or emotional thing, like aggressive behavior," Hoge said.
Many of the diagnostics are determined by a manual for mental disorders put out by the American Psychological Association.
The school will use that book and coding to bill Medicaid, Hoge said.
"If your child has aggressive behavior, and they're going to have to have counseling, and they're going to have to have interventions, they have to bill for that," she said. "The more children they identify, the more money they can get reimbursed from the federal government.
"They're being told it's free money," she continued. "They're milking the system, milking Medicaid. And there are different people who are trained going into the schools saying this is how you could go about getting a lot more money into your school system. And the more you identify the kids, the more money you will get."
In the end, it's about controlling the population through data collection, Hoge said.
"This is what Hillary (Clinton) tried to do back in 1995, when she wrote the book, 'It Takes a Village to Raise a Child.' Pennsylvania had a huge investigation on this back in 1996," she said. "We were a pilot for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to come in and implement this, helping the schools bill Medicare, jump through the hoops and get the free money.
"They want the information on everyone, but the thing about these little kids is they want the information on the family. The collection of information is violation of your privacy. If they use it against you, what they do with it is invasion of your freedom, because most of the time they use the data against you."
