Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410170090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
She got mad when the older boy said he was forced to answer over his objections.
``It comes across that when you date, it's a given that sex is involved,'' Leonard said. ``My husband and myself are trying to instill that this is unacceptable.''
Leonard isn't the only one angry about the questionnaires, given in the last few weeks to all Hampton middle school and some high school students. The questions are designed to test students' knowledge about the legal and financial responsibilities of teen pregnancy.
They were developed by Hampton Social Services through the agency's Student Training on Pregnancy Prevention, or STOPP, program and are part of the school system's optional sex-education, or family life, curriculum.
STOPP, which focuses on the financial and emotional impact of teen pregnancy, takes up only one or two days of the family life curriculum, which lasts about nine or 10 days. Social Service staffers teach STOPP, and school personnel teach the rest of family life.
The questionnaires have caused such an uproar that the Hampton Council of PTAs has scheduled a special meeting Nov.1 to let parents discuss the issue with authorities.
A group of parents also is expected to voice complaints to the Hampton School Board on Wednesday.
Superintendent Billy Cannaday said parents should have been notified about the test and given the opportunity to have their children opt out. He and others said the test is given to students at various times during the school year.
This year authorities decided to give the test to everyone at the beginning of the school year, regardless of whether they were yet in family life. Some schools apparently didn't realize they still had to tell parents about it, Cannaday said.
Leonard, whose sons attend Eaton Middle School, said she would have gotten them excused. Even the questions that focused on the financial burden of a teen pregnancy were inappropriate for her 14-year-old, let alone her 11-year-old, she said.
One of the multiple-choice questions for sixth-grade boys asks students what they would do if a pregnant girlfriend accuses them of being the father.
``I never thought this would be covered on a sixth-grade level,'' said Diane Harbulak, mother of a fourth-grader and a 10th-grader. ``Everyone I talk to is livid.''
Harbulak, who allows her children to take the family life classes, said material covered on the questionnaires probably will cause parents to think twice about letting their children attend the family life sessions.
The tests were given to students in sixth through 10th grades. In middle school, boys got one set of questions, and girls got another. The questions varied somewhat, depending on grade level.
Students are given no instruction beforehand and won't know if they answered correctly until they take the family life classes, possibly weeks or months later.
The tests were developed to measure how much students know before taking the course. Until this year, they were administered when a student started family life, said Deborah A. Russell, one of the social-service workers in charge of the program. This year officials decided to give the pre-tests at the beginning of the year because students were skewing the results by telling friends who hadn't taken it.
One question on the survey for sixth-grade girls asks who receives a welfare check if a teen-age girl has a baby.
``This is for people who have already gotten pregnant; and if they've already gotten pregnant, they're in a whole other league,'' Harbulak said.
Russell defended the questionnaires as valuable in determining how much young people need to know about teen pregnancy.
``What we are trying to do is make them aware of what the issues are and what they can expect if they come and apply for social services,'' she said.
by CNB