ROY, UT (KUTV/CNN) – A school district in Utah put a veteran teacher on administrative leave while they investigate an assigned questionnaire asking teens about their criminal and sexual histories.
Heather Miller’s 16-year-old daughter came home with the assignment for her college-concurrent Adult Roles class at Roy High School last week.
“‘Do you smoke pot? Have you ever passed out from drinking? Have you ever tried angel dust? Have you and your girl ever had an abortion?’ That's when I really was like, 'That's like a medical procedure,’” Miller said.
The mother was shocked and posted the questionnaire on Facebook, where it went viral, but it wasn’t only the questions that shocked her but also the questionnaire’s point system.
“‘A nerd – just where you should be at your age,’” Miller read.
The questionnaire labeled students anywhere from a “nerd” to “hopeless and condemned” based off their answers to the revealing questions.
"It was labeling our children as nerds,” Miller said.
Lane Findlay, with the Weber School District, says the questions aren’t just inappropriate but are also illegal.
"It's a very serious matter,” Findlay said. "There are specific state laws with FERPA as well as board and district policy that prohibit asking students about sexual preferences, behaviors, attitudes."
Thanks to parents like Miller calling out both the school and the district, Findlay says they’re working quickly to figure out how this questionnaire got into the Adult Roles class in the first place.
"Occasionally, we do make mistakes, and if we do, we'll own those and do whatever we need to correct those,” Findlay said.
But Miller worries that for students like her daughter, the damage may have already been done.
"She felt very judged. So, I was really, really concerned about other kids,” she said.
Findlay says the teacher is on administrative leave while the school district investigates. She was not asked how long she had been using the questionnaire for the class.
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