Parents Slam 'Perverted' Missouri School Questions Asking 6th Grade Boys If They Feel Like Girls
A number of parents have spoken out against the Missouri Department of Mental Health's Missouri Student Survey, which was issued at school and asked their sixth grade children whether they feel like they were born in the wrong gender.
One parent, Samantha Overkramer, told KMOV, "The most inappropriate one was if they were transgender or thought about changing genders," Overkramer said. "My daughter, I mean she just doesn't understand that."
Courtney West, parent of one of the students at Bourbon Middle School in the Crawford R-1 School District, commented, "To me, anyone asking my 11-year-old daughter if she likes girls or boys, and if she wants to be transgender, if that's not a parent, or it's not coming from me, that's just perverted."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The survey, which is also known as the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Community survey, inquired whether some boys feel like they were born in the wrong bodies and should be girls, and vice versa.
It also asked questions about mental health, bullying and suicidal behavior.
Students across grades 6 through 12 were asked to take the survey, which is designed to "understand the risk behavior by teens and help tailor prevention programs."
Many parents, such as, said that some of the questions went too far for young students.
Shane Burns said about his son:
"He thought it was incredibly inappropriate, he was worried about some of the kids had no idea what the stuff was and now they know. It's kind of a parent's choice to introduce that kind of subject matter."
Bourbon Middle School Principal Brian Witt argued in a letter that students "did not have to answer any question on the survey that made them feel uncomfortable," and also claimed that the district was not aware of the specific questions.
The Department of Mental Health has said that school districts have the right to opt out of various sections of the survey should they choose so.
The controversy has since prompted Crawford R1 School District to remove the questions on gender identity from the surveys, KMOV reported.
Parents in various states have been speaking out in recent months against graphic surveys and sex education classes in America. The mother of a 12-year-old student in Oklahoma said that her daughter was left in tears in October by explicit material.
The sex ed lessons at Jay Middle School reportedly listed mutual masturbation, oral, vaginal and anal sex as the "four types" of sex.
"I was appalled at what someone in our school system had deemed appropriate to talk to my 12-year-old child about. In a room where boys and girls are combined," said Mandy Callihan.
"They most certainly did not say, 'Hey moms and dads we're gonna be teaching your very young sons and daughters about masturbating by themselves (and mutual masturbation with partners), spend some time talking about oral sex, and anal sex,'" the parent added.
In September, other parents at a California public charter school slammed lessons on transgender identity being introduced to kindergarten children.
The parents also demanded that they be informed beforehand of the planned lessons.
"There should be an 'opt out' procedure in there by me, from the teachers, on what is going on in the classroom. We get notifications about parking and everything under the sun. This shouldn't be an issue. We should receive emails. We should receive something from them," said Chad Clark at a school board meeting last year.
