PAYS Survey (Pennsylvania Youth Survey)
The School Board is approving your School District to conduct the PAYS Survey.
Administration has clearly stated that there is no correlative or statistical data, NONE, that proves this survey has reduced teen destructive behavior!
I am opposed to this! Families that disagree with the survey are “pushed through the hoop” and forced to “OPT OUT” their children.
A sensible “OPT IN” was proposed and defeated 5-4. Unbelievable. This isn’t supporting families!
2013 PAYS Survey (English) pdf
Does this survey have any academic value? NO! NONE!
Is this survey an anonymous portal into your home and sort of psychological study of your children? Is it intrusive? YES!
Yes it is optional, however, until now, no one has asked about the questions in the survey. My exposing this to the light of day, will ensure many parents option their children out of this survey. Do not let your children take it!
Your School Board has allowed this survey to be conducted twice in the last 4 years. Even though the questions are accessible on line, no analysis of this survey was done by your School Board in a public meeting.
In past years, your School Board just took the Administration at face value and did not fulfill their duty to you.
Until now!
Below are just a few of the actual questions being asked of your
13 year old girls and boys!
- During the last 12 months, has anyone on the Internet, ever tried to get you to talk about sex, look at sexual pictures or do something sexual?
- How often do you and your family attend religious services or activities?
- How easy would it be for you to get a gun?
- Do you feel very close to your mother?
- Do you feel very close to your Father?
- Do you share your thoughts with your mother or father?
- Do you enjoy spending time with your mother or father?
- Do your parents ever tell you your doing a good job?
- Do your parents ever tell you they are proud of you?
- Do your parents argue about the same things all the time?
- Do people in your house often insult or yell at each other?
- How many times have you skipped a meal because your family didn’t have enough money?
- Does anyone in your family have a severe drug or alcohol problem?
I support Family Values and Parental rights: I oppose this survey.
* I hold to the truth that the most important institution in our society is the family, the most important job anyone has is being a parent. We must not undermine our families effort to instill their principles and their value sets in their children.
* Parents are trying their best to guard their children, to establish what is off-limits. To establish inhibitions so that children don’t easily run into trouble. This survey will remove and deconstruct these inhibitions. The schools should and must totally support the community and the Family.
We must be careful we don’t sleepwalk into this thing. This conversation may be uncomfortable, but we must have it. It is our moral obligation to get this right.
The survey asks extremely sensitive and probing questions about students attitudes and behaviors concerning drugs both illegal and prescription, alcohol, tobacco, guns, a families faith, the families provided home life, religion, violence and depression. There are also questions about criminal actions, suicide.
Subjecting our children to these inappropriate questions is wrong!
Let’s get back to the business of actually teaching academics and not anonymously conducting profiles of our children!
There are other aspects of this survey, such as identifying student depression. This may seem on the surface, as very valuable:
Administration clearly stated that there is no proof that it helps with anything!
Absolutely no data or evidence, proving that this anonymous survey is an effective and efficient way for the School District to get to the bottom of these issues.
To summarize:
* Many parents simply find these questions being asked of their children inappropriate and having nothing to do with academic outcome.
* If it is inappropriate for a school official or administrator to ask these questions directly of your children, then the questions are inappropriate: PERIOD.
* We are asking highly impressionable children, susceptible to suggestion questions about suicide and other destructive habits. It is the purview of the parents to teach this to their children!
* I commit that we will look closely to see if we have seen a reduction of teen destructive habits in the past 4 years! STAY TUNED!