Photo used under a Creative Commons license with cbede.

How far is too far when it comes to asking the District’s public school students about sexual behavior? Is it acceptable to ask them if they can name the bodily fluids that transmit HIV? If they know how to put on a condom correctly? Whether they know how to “convince a reluctant partner to use barrier protection?” Where do you draw the line? That’s the question raised by this report in the Georgetown Dish, who discovered that a survey which was given to students at Hardy Middle School is asking some very frank questions about sexual acts and identity — ones that I’d be willing to bet many adults would blush at.

The survey was developed by Metro TeenAIDS, a nonprofit who aims to increase HIV/AIDS awareness among youth, and is reportedly part of an initiative introduced by DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee in 2008. The Dish got their hands on the letter which informed parents that their children were going to be part of a program which would be used to research the knowledge of children and warned parents that the questions they ask “may make your child feel uncomfortable.” Though whether parents were able to truly give their informed consent is still up in the air:

Other parents heard about the “sex test” from their kids. “The school is making us take a sex survey,” one child told his mother. 

Whatever the intent of the program, neither Susan nor her husband had given informed consent allowing their son to be part of a program that went far beyond how they would have handled instruction in the mechanics, responsibilities, ethics and moral behavior of sexual activity of their 12-year-old.  Also of considerable concern, they had not been informed that, nor had they been asked for consent for their son to be involved in a pre- and post-program evaluation probing his response to questions about sexual practices and illegal drug use.  As far as Susan and her husband were concerned, the program came out of nowhere and was totally inappropriate for their child.  When they demanded an explanation, their strong feelings were at first brushed off by school administrators, who told them that the survey had been administered following normal procedures.

Parents were given the option to opt their children out of the survey, if they so chose.