Student health survey with sex-related questions draws concern from Duval group

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local group of concerned parents and parental rights advocates in Duval County are fighting for change over a Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and several of the questions asked.

The survey includes questions surrounding sexual activity and gender identity. There are also questions about alcohol and drug use.

The survey was created by the CDC and is used within local school districts every two years, including Duval County Public Schools.

The goal is to monitor health-related behaviors among 6-12th grade students.

Rebecca Nathanson is the Chapter Chair of Moms for Liberty - Duval.

“We were just shocked and completely disheartened,” Nathanson said.

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Questions included:

“Have you ever been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when you did not want to?”

“During your life, with how many people have you had sexual intercourse? "

“How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?”

Parents can opt their children out of the survey.

The first Florida YRBS was administered in 1991. Since 2001, the YRBS has been jointly administered in odd-numbered years by the Florida Departments of Health and Education.

While the survey is anonymous, Nathanson believes it’s a violation of parental rights and students’ rights to privacy.

“This survey is data mining information in order to further an ideology, and it’s not really to benefit the individuals taking the survey,” Nathanson said.

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Moms for Liberty is asking the Duval County School Board for 3 things:

1. Circulate the survey to the parents BEFORE it is administered to the students.

2. Require parents to OPT IN to having their children take the survey, and

3. Eliminate all questions which were not specifically propounded by the CDC or which ask about sexual orientation, sexual activity, or gender identity.

“We would like the school district to comply with the intent in the spirit of the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment,” Nathanson said. “That is a federal law that requires parents to provide affirmative consent when minors are asked questions of such a sensitive nature. That law applies to surveys that are funded by the Department of Education. We see this as a legal loophole because these surveys are actually funded by the CDC. But we think it’s only right and fair and transparent that the school district still complies with the spirit of that law.”

Duval students selected for the survey could be notified by the end of the month.

According to the Florida Department of Health: the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is a statewide, school-based confidential survey of Florida’s public high school students.

The purpose of the YRBS is to monitor priority health-risk behaviors that contribute substantially to the leading causes of death, disability, and social problems among youth, which contribute to patterns in adulthood.

According to the CDC: from 1991 through 2019, the YRBSS collected data from more than 4.9 million high school students in more than 2,100 separate surveys.

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