The nerve of those parents in the Crawford School District who think it inappropriate for the State of Missouri to ask their 6th graders whether they have ever thought about changing their gender!
The folks in small town south central Missouri, the appropriately named “Show-Me” state, have obviously not kept up with the times. They seemed unaware that hipper citizens in more with-it burgs believe that kids can change their gender as readily as they change their jeans.
“The most inappropriate [question] was if they were transgender or thought about changing genders. My daughter, I mean she just doesn’t understand that,” Samantha Overkramer, parent of a 6th grader, told News 4 out of St. Louis.
Asking the questions was the Missouri Department of Mental Health. The bi-annual student survey is known as “the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Survey,” apparently the longer name the greater the funding. The survey asks 6th to 12th graders questions about all the issues du jour including substance abuse, bullying, suicidal behavior and this year’s trendiest issue, gender identity.
The results are allegedly used by the Department of Mental Health “to understand risk behavior by teens and helps to tailor prevention programs.” One suspects the questions plant as many seeds as they potentially solve problems. If nothing else, students who are uncertain about their sexual identity now know that suicide is an option.
The principal of the local high school claimed that students were given the choice of answering or not answering questions, but parents believed that the kids were pressured into participating whether the questions made them uncomfortable or not.
In the letter to parents, Principal Brian Witt wrote, “School districts are not provided with survey questions prior to giving the survey to students.” The Department of Mental Health claimed that school districts did not have to participate and, if they did, they could choose not to include certain sections of the test. Oh, well!
The parent protest paid off. The gender has question has been removed, at least in the Crawford School District, at least for now.