Questionnaire at an elementary school.

[newcriminal]

My 6th grade daughter came home from school today and told me she was called down to the principle's office to fill out an anonymous questionnaire today. There were 10 kids from her grade. They were first told that they were called to fill out the questionnaire because they were the most responsible kids in their grade. Then they sat at a table and were handed a questionnaire with about 60 questions on it.

Some of the questions were:

Have you ever seen drugs in the school?

Have you ever seen students smoking in school?

Have you ever seen a fight in school?

Do you think the presence of more security officers would make a difference in the school?

How often do you think cheating occurs in your classroom?

Do you think students are comfortable telling the security guards if they see something that another student is doing that they shouldn't be doing?

I can't believe they are asking students these questions. Tomorrow morning my butt will be the first one at that principle's office asking for a copy of the questionnaire. Asking why was my daughter asked to take the questionnaire? What do they plan on doing with the questionnaire? And any other questions you all or I come up with before tomorrow morning.

[demmiblue]

1. I am not against these types of anonymous and voluntary questionnaires...

however, this was hardly anonymous or voluntary.

Not very scientific, IMHO.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. +1

In addition to what you mentioned, there should have been a parental consent form issued well in advance of the questionnaire administration. That was SOP whenever I've administered surveys to students.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Well, it's obviously not scientific.

It could be both anonymous and voluntary.

[hippywife]

3. I don't blame you.

And I agree with demmiblue about it not being either voluntary or anonymous. Sheesh!

It's fine if they want some of this information but at the least it should have been sent to the parents of a large group of the student body with a totally anonymous way to respond and return it. These things should never be conducted without parental approval and supervision, or without totally protecting the anonymity of the students.

[realisticphish]

9. only supervision to the extent of permission, imho

the child should be guaranteed anonymity from their parents, too. I mean, imagine if they wrote that they had seen someone do drugs. How many parents wouldn't start demanding to know more immediately? They'd be more likely to not answer.

edit: that is to say, the parents could READ a sample questionnaire, for example, but would not be privy to their child's responses

[hippywife]

10. Agreed. n/t

[REP]

4. Ask that she be excluded from future "anonymous" questionnaires

Principals and teachers can identify children by their handwriting quite well. Turning children into Orwellian 'Little Spies' is not supposed to be a function of the schools.

[newcriminal]

5. Oh they already tried that shit on my boys.

Someone wrote something nasty about a girl on the bathroom wall so they took handwriting samples of every boy in the 6th and 5th grades. We promptly called the school and they gave us their handwriting samples. I don't do well with people messing with my children at all.

[carlyhippy]

7. Wow, a permission slip should have gone home to you to be signed before participation

if you didn't get one, you didn't give permission, I would bring that up tomorrow!

[realisticphish]

8. I have no experience with things like this, but I do have psych research experience

any IRB would eviscerate a study that didn't notify minors' parents ahead of time as being unethical.

I have zero problem with a questionnaire asking these questions. They all seem very reasonable. But not without notification, and not without anonymity. Though, frankly, their answers may have been totally anonymous, in the sense that no one but them knows that they wrote it.


But those objections aside, I don't see the problem with these questions. She's a 6th grader. I think those are entirely reasonable questions to ask a 6th grader

[petronius]

11. I'm not so sure about the IRB point - when it comes to human subjects review,

research is "systematic investigation ... designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge." I doubt that this sort of facility-specific operational questionnaire would qualify.

Still, it seems like a great way to single out certain kids for harassment - they should have given it to all the students. And even if notification wasn't required, there was no urgency that would preclude notifying the parents that something unusual was going to happen...

[cwydro]

12. I am so grateful

that I grew up before there were security guards in schools.

[seabeyond]

13. we have always had papers to sign asking if said questionaires were ok.

i never minded the kids doing this.

they had their reasons when i asked about if, forgot what it was, but didnt feel intrusive or damaging.

but good for you for going down, and showing your concern and wanting to be informed