The Rapid City School District will be conducting a survey for middle school students. Two local moms went to their school to ask to see the survey. They were able to get a few pictures of  this confidential survey. A survey the district claims if parents know the questions, they will compromise the integrity of the results. Seriously, our children can see the questions, but parents are not allowed?

These questions are measuring attitudes, beliefs, behavior and dispositions. This is not a requirement of K-12 education. Why do they need to know? And can we just tell Middle School Students how to get non-prescription drugs and what they can do.

Students will take this survey online. Chiesman Center for Democracy. There is nothing anonymous about anything done online. This survey is more than 10 pages, and here are a few of those pages.

On this page children are asked to “Rate your level of agreement to the following statements.” The options are Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree Nor Disagree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.

• People lie and cheat to get ahead.
• It is okay to hit someone if they are mean to me.
• It is okay to lie or cheat so I don’t feel bad
• It is okay to lie and cheat as long as you don’t hurt anyone.
• I have a responsibility to help other people
• If I see something I think is wrong, I try to do something about it.
• It is okay to lie on an application if it mean getting a better job.
• It is okay to use people to get something important as long as they are not really hurt by it.
• A person should do the right thing no matter what happens.
• I can accept another person’s opinion that is different from my own.
• I respect the fact that each person is different in beliefs, culture, and ethnicity. (It is okay for people to be different.)
• I believe honesty is the best policy. (It is always best to tell the truth.)

On this page it says:

• In the past 30 days, I have used prescription medications in order to get high:
• I did not use prescription medications in order to get high in the past 30 days
• • 1 time
  • 2 times
  • 3 times
  • 4 or more times
• Have you ever taken a non-prescription medication such as cough or cold medicine to get high (Some medications can be sold legally without a doctor’s prescription by drugstores, through the mail, etc. These non-prescription or “over the counter” drugs include cough syrup or cold medicine.)?
  • Yes
  • No
• How old were you when you first took non-prescription medication such as cough or cold medicine to get high:
  • The options for answers for this question start with 5 and go up to 19.
• In the past six months, how many times did you use non-prescription medication such as cough or cold medicine to get high?
  • I did not use non-prescription medications such as cough or cold medicine to get high in the past six months.
  • Once or twice
  • 3 to 5 times
  • 6 or more times

The questions on this page: 

• Ridden with someone who has been drinking or intoxicated? (I can’t see all the choices in answers on this one)
• 0 Times
• 1 Time
• 2 Times

• In the past YEAR, about how many times did your parent or family member talk about not having sex?
  • Choices are zero times up to  4 or more times.
• In the past 30 DAYS, how many times have you had sex…
  • Choices are zero to 4 or more times.

Parents, know your rights. South Dakota Law requires parents must give written permission to allow their student to take any surveys. (Link 1)  Please print a copy of SB 63 and take it into your school administrators or email a copy to your school administrators. We are finding that they don’t know about this new law.