by Kate Shunney
Morgan County Schools won’t be using student survey tools for the remainder of the academic year after controversy arose around questions included in a survey of 4th graders and middle school students.
Superintendent David Banks made the announcement at the December 16 school board meeting.
A student survey, which has been given annually in Morgan County classrooms since 2009, gathers data about student behaviors and attitudes. The Developmental Assets Profile survey comes from a company called the Search Institute, and is administered by the Morgan County Partnership. The data is used in strategic planning and grant writing to add prevention resources and student supports in the school system.
On November 21, one class of 4th graders and another part of a class completed the survey before school staff detected there were questions in the survey that didn’t match the sample survey shared with families on the Partnership website.
Two questions in particular raised concern, said Superintendent Banks. He said one asked students if they considered themselves “transgender” and another gave them the option to choose “non-binary” as a gender designation.
“Those questions are not appropriate for a 4th grader to be answering,” said Banks.
Warm Springs Intermediate School Principal Scott Lykins stopped the survey in all classes when he became aware of the questions.
Superintendent Banks told the school board that Mr. Lykins also contacted the parent of each child who had taken the survey and apologized for the mistake.
The Morgan County Partnership was notified of the survey contents and they took full responsibility for the survey error, posting a public apology letter on their website and social media platforms.
The December 12 letter said the Search Institute added “additional demographic questions to their 4th & 6th grade surveys.”
“The Partnership did not catch that the additional questions were added to the survey. We are examining our internal practices and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” the Partnership said in their letter.
Dr. Kristen Gingery, Executive Director of the Partnership, addressed the school board on December 16, offering an apology and accountability for the oversight.
The Partnership is a coalition of citizens, local community groups, government agencies, businesses, churches and volunteers that works to create a “safe, healthy, and drug-free community.”
Dr. Gingery said the Search Institute, which provides the annual survey tool, did add new questions this year. The Partnership staff member tasked with reviewing the survey before it was given out failed to catch those questions. That staff member was placed on administrative leave and has since resigned, Dr. Gingery told the school board and Superintendent.
She noted that the survey data has helped the Partnership and school system secure very large grants that have added social workers, mental health resources and prevention programs in county schools for more than a decade.
Four members of the public signed up to speak at the school board meeting, several of them referencing the content of school surveys and curriculum and asking for parents to be able to preview those items before they are given to students.
Jay Waugh told school board members that he thinks parents should have to give permission for their students to take any non-academic survey at school.
“That survey was sent out with a QR code on it – I don’t use QR codes, that’s ridiculous. The way it should work is to send the survey home and the parents say it’s okay,” said Mr. Waugh. “It’s parents civil rights to know what’s on those surveys.”
“I’ve got a beautiful child I’m taking care of and I want her to have the best education but I don’t want her indoctrinated. And I don’t think any parent does,” he said.
“From now on, I want to see the survey before it’s given – and not on a QR code. I wouldn’t know how to scan a QR code if I needed to,” said Waugh.
“I hope it’s remedied so it never happens again,” he concluded.
Another parent, given the opportunity to speak, said Waugh had covered her thoughts.
Chelsea Unger said she wants to know someone in the schools will review everything students will see.
“My main concern is there going to be somebody going through the entire program that students are going to see prior to students seeing them so we don’t have to deal with that issue?” she asked.
“I’m all about mental health but I feel like there’s a lot of things they put in their heads that doesn’t need to be there,” Unger said. “That’s not what I’m sending them to school for.”
Board president Aaron Close thanked the families for coming to express their concerns.
“Thank you for caring about your students. That’s the biggest thing I see here,” said Close.
In related discussion, Superintendent Banks said that a new curriculum about cyber security provided for high schools by the West Virginia Department of Education contains “content that was not appropriate” and he has notified the state that Morgan County won’t use the training videos.
“There are questions about things like suicide. If those are going to be on there, we need to educate our students and parents of our students ahead of time that they are going to see these issues,” Banks said.
He said he believes some Berkeley Springs High Schools were shown the training videos before officials pulled them from use.
