THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200378
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Parents of Hampton city schools students who were mistakenly given a premarital sex questionnaire have been sent letters of apology by Superintendent Billy K. Cannaday.
The district failed to get permission from the parents of the sixth- through 10th-graders, and it failed to get the approval of the district's Family Life Steering Committee for the tests, Cannaday told the parents.
``Anything that would be explained would be an excuse,'' he wrote. ``I have ultimate responsibility.''
The Hampton Council of PTAs has scheduled a meeting Nov. 1 for parents to discuss the issue with school officials. Many parents are as concerned about the procedural failings as they are about the test questions, council president Carol Anne McErlean said.
The steering committee, made up of parents, ministers and educators, was supposed to have approved the test before it was handed out, but the group didn't receive it, Cannaday said. Parents also should have been given the option to excuse their children, he said.
The tests, part of the school system's optional sex education program, recently were given to students in sixth through 10th grades. Cannaday said all of the tests were shredded by school officials Tuesday evening.
Some parents have objected to the questions, which varied from grade to grade. Sixth-grade boys, for example, were asked if they knew their options for denying paternity should a girl accuse them of getting her pregnant. Most of the questions focused on the link between teen pregnancy and poverty.
Susan Leonard, who complained that the questions assumed students would have sex when they dated, said she was pleased with Cannaday's actions. Leonard, the mother of two sons ages 11 and 14, said she hadn't seen a copy of Cannaday's letter, but had heard about it.
``From what I'm told, the administration is being very responsible, and that's exactly what I wanted,'' Leonard said.
Cannaday has opted to discontinue the part of the family life program that deals with issues covered by the tests until the steering committee is able to reassess the program.
The Hampton Department of Social Services developed the tests for use in its section of the family life program.
The ``pretests'' are supposed to measure how much students know about welfare and teen pregnancy before they get the lesson, which usually takes up one day of the two-week program.
Up until this year, the pretests were administered when a student started the family-life curriculum, according to social services personnel. This year social services decided to give all pretests at the beginning of the year because students were skewing the results by discussing the test with friends who hadn't taken it, authorities said. Parents were not notified of the changes in the testing schedule. by CNB