SCHOOLS SNOOP FOR SCANDAL

What happened to readin' and writin' and 'rithmetic? Today students are
being grilled like delinquents about non-academics such as sex, drugs and
hooch.

Invasive school surveys ask students if they drink, smoke, snort or steal.
Are their parents political, abusive, divorced or dead? Do they believe in
God, hell and heaven? Have they ever been bullied, pregnant, arrested or
raped? Do they floss, bike or jog? Are they fat, skinny or suicidal? Do
they have sex, hobbies or a gun?

Never are they asked if they are embarrassed by the questions. Nor are they
read their Miranda rights.

School, government and psychology confederates seem pathologically
compelled to guinea pig our kids. Questionnaires arrive from groups like
the Centers for Disease Control, Weekly Reader, the U.S. Department of
Education, the Kaiser Family Foundation and National Parents Commission.

Government and private grants seduce districts into using these student
interrogations, which are then used to convince benefactors that districts
need help ­ the bigger the problems, the bigger the prize.

"If a district proves itself to be in rough enough shape," financial
faucets open, says Edward Freeland, associate director of the Survey
Research Center at Princeton University. "Consequently, surveys contain
some bizarre questions."

Not only are questions bizarre, many are offensive. And parents seldom know
Junior is spilling the beans, says family advocate Brad Dacus, president of
the non-profit Pacific Justice Institute.

Organizations hope data will translate into programs that preemptively
squelch a myriad of social evils.

But do they? Principal Frank DeAngelis said the Columbine killers projected
no criminal indicators at school before their rampage.

Also, data is compromised. A 12-year-old New Jersey jokester confided he
morphed into an 18-year-old Chinese girl on his survey. Another supposedly
had 12 sex partners in a week.

Anonymity isn't guaranteed because some schools pre-labeled polls or have
kids sign names. Teacher integrity is questioned ­ they snoop, say enraged
Oregonians, whose kids responded to the Values Appraisal Scale.

If school boards and legislators don't halt the practice, students will
continue to slog through surveys, exposing family ills and ids to the
scrutiny of strangers.

"Notification and permission slips are so vague, no one suspects what's
happening," says parent Carole Nunn, whose complaint prompted recent New
Jersey state legislation. With any hint of a survey, "parents need to read
them and opt kids out."

New Jersey's law states that students cannot be quizzed on personal issues
unless parents give informed written consent. It is the only state to do so.

The new federal education reform bill tried for similar protection. Groups
like the American Psychological Association ­ worried parents would deny
them access to their kids ­ lobbied successfully to have it diluted.

"If you could eliminate an entire race, would you? Which one?" a
Bettendorf, Iowa, survey asked in 1992. Youngsters get details on oral sex
in one question on the CDC's 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys given to
grades seven to 12. Another lists street names where illegal drugs are sold
and asks which substances respondents have sampled.

Dr. Freeland wonders if such questions nudge kids to explore behavior noted
in the questions themselves. "There is no data about the potential harm
rendered," he says. This begs the question: Does negative scrutiny send
negative signals? Is a child's self-perception damaged when respected
adults deem it necessary to quiz her on immoral and illegal conduct? "We
need to look at these factors," says Dr. Freeland.

Ask me; I know. I am a refugee of childhood physical and psychological
inquisitions. My psychiatrist father saw me as a handy specimen for
perpetual analysis.

I was a "polio pioneer," testing the Salk vaccine in the early '50s.
Rorschach inkblots probed my psyche. As a humiliated 11-year-old, I was
photographed in my underpants at school for posture screening. Intermingled
throughout was a psychiatric couch.

I wondered what acute personal flaws prompted the unceasing assessments.

When I taught 30 years ago, family sovereignty was honored, except in
unique crises. Students concentrated on academics, athletics and the arts.
Today, educators must refocus on that original scholastic mandate.

And ditch the ignoble school survey, which is little more than a
sociological strip searc